The next passengers on SpaceX’s Dragon will have to wait a little longer to get off the ground.
SpaceX and NASA will launch Crew-5, their next crewed mission to the International Space Station, no earlier than Sept. 29, according to a NASA statement (opens in new tab) released Thursday (July 21). The delay would cause the mission to slip past the next launch of astronauts on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
“A late September launch will allow SpaceX to complete hardware processing, and mission teams will continue to review the launch date based on the spacecraft’s visit schedule to the space station,” NASA officials wrote.
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Crew-5 includes NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Kasada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina.
The flight will be an important milestone for NASA, which has long argued in favor of “crew swapping,” in which Russian cosmonauts fly on NASA-purchased missions while NASA astronauts continue to ride on Russian Soyuz capsules.
After lengthy negotiations, NASA announced last week that Crew-5 will be the first SpaceX flight to carry an astronaut. NASA and Russia’s Roscosmos space agency also agreed to have cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev fly on Crew-6, which is currently targeting a spring launch. Meanwhile, NASA astronauts Frank Rubio and Loral O’Hara will fly Soyuz missions in the coming months.
The new schedule for Crew-5 means that the vehicles will swap launch slots as well as the passengers.
Previously, the Crew-5 mission had aimed to arrive at the orbiting laboratory earlier in September. Under the new schedule, instead of Crew-5 replacing Crew-4 astronauts in orbit before the next Soyuz launch, the Soyuz crews will turn around first. The launch of the next Soyuz and the return of the current Soyuz crew is scheduled to occur between September 16 and September 30, according to NASA.
In addition to the schedule update, NASA and SpaceX also offered details about the rocket and capsule that will fly with Crew-5.
The mission will use the Dragon Endurance capsule, which is also carrying Crew-3, for launch in November 2021; the capsule returned to Earth from that flight in early May. Although SpaceX routinely uses its hardware, NASA noted that this flight will mark a new milestone; this will be the first commercial flight of the crew carrying four veteran Draco engines to drive the capsule, without new so-called Draco front engines. The teams are also turning off the capsule’s heat shield, parachutes and capsule panels, according to the statement.
Endurance will be launched atop a brand new Falcon 9 booster, but the mission staff still has some issues to work out on that front as well. The booster suffered some damage during the trip from SpaceX’s production center in California to the test facility in Texas, according to the statement. Accordingly, the company replaces both the intermediate stage that connects the first and second stages, as well as some tools.
Both SpaceX and NASA are confident in the booster, which has undergone multiple tests to ensure there is no failure beyond the interstage segment; additional tests will also be performed after all replacements are completed, according to the statement.
Email Megan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meganbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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