| From left: Astronauts Konstantin Borisov, Andreas Mogensen, Jasmin Moghbeli, and Satoshi Furukawa of Crew-7 prepare to be launched to the International Space Station on August 17. (Source: SpaceX) |
At a press conference on July 25, officials from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced they are planning for the Crew-7 crewed mission to the ISS on August 17. This mission, aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft, was originally scheduled for launch on August 15 but was delayed by two days to allow time for a rocket upgrade from the Falcon Heavy to the Falcon 9.
At the time of the press conference, a Falcon Heavy rocket was scheduled to launch on July 26th, carrying the Jupiter-3 communications satellite. That launch was also delayed by two days due to technical problems, but successfully lifted off on July 28th.
Neither NASA nor SpaceX have indicated whether the delay will affect the Crew-7 launch schedule. At the meeting, Steve Stitch, NASA's Commercial Crew Program Director, stated that if Crew-7 is not launched before August 18th, the only remaining chance for a launch before August 25th would be August 21st.
Meanwhile, Benji Reed, Senior Director of Manned Space Programs at SpaceX, affirmed that preparations for Crew-7 are progressing well.
This person revealed that during the June launch of the Dragon cargo spacecraft, an incident occurred where isolation valves in the spacecraft's propulsion system became stuck. Those valves (which are only used if there is a leak in the propulsion system) appeared to have corroded and remained open despite not needing to.
Director Reed said: "We are testing the isolation valves on all the Dragon spacecraft. The valves on the Crew-7 spacecraft are functioning normally, as are the valves on the Crew-6 spacecraft that just docked with the ISS... We feel confident in the Crew-7 spacecraft's upcoming launch to the ISS."
The Crew-7 crew will be commanded by NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, with European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen as the pilot. Satoshi Furukawa of the Japanese space agency JAXA and Konstantin Borisov of Roscosmos (Russia) will be members.
Joel Montalbano, director of NASA's ISS program, said the four people are expected to spend about 190 days on the station.
This flight will be followed by the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft, scheduled to launch on September 15th. It will carry Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub along with NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara to the ISS.
Astronaut O'Hara is expected to spend six months on the ISS, while scientists Kononenko and Chub may stay there for a year.
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