Sunday night into Monday morning SpaceX successfully delivered the next crew rotation for NASA to the International Space Station. This was another flawless human spaceflight mission for SpaceX, its 14th overall and second of 2024.
SpaceX knocks another crewed flight out of the park
SpaceX initially delayed Crew-8‘s launch on Saturday due to poor weather. While Sunday had marginal improvements, the early percentage of favorable weather was low. However the launch gods were gracious and by the time Crew-8’s astronauts were at the launch pad, weather reports improved to 90% favorable.
As you would expect from SpaceX, the launch sequence went flawlessly. It seems to be another day at the job for SpaceX technicians to get the crew suited up and strapped into the Crew Dragon spacecraft as no issues where found and the crew lifted off at 10:53 P.M. ET from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center.
Crew-8, commanded by NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick with NASA astronaut Michael Barratt serving as the pilot, flew to space inside Dragon Endeavour. Named by its first two passengers, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken who flew it on SpaceX’s first ever crewed flight, Demo-2, back in 2020.
Endeavour carried Dominick, Barratt, along side NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin on a path to meet with the orbiting laboratory. The four docked and ingressed into the station early Tuesday morning.
The four will relieve Crew-7, whom launched to space back in August, and will start their six month stay on the station conducting various experiments in both human health and other sciences.
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Boeing is getting closet to its first crewed mission
Crew-8 is also expected to receive a few visitors from Earth during their stay. Of course more cargo missions will be launched by both SpaceX and Russia but also two crewed missions.
During Crew-8’s stay they will be on board for the arrival of MS-25 which will have a Belarusian cosmonaut visiting on a short 12 day stay on the station. Marina Vasilevskaya, she will be joined by a Russian cosmonaut, will hold the title of first Belarusian woman in space.
While a big moment for Belarus, for the Western World a potential big moment will be the launch and arrival of Boeing Crewed Flight Test mission. After two uncrewed flight tests and the need to make substantial changes to wiring and parachute systems, Boeing is hoping to finally get its first crewed flight test ready to fly by early summer.
Similar to SpaceX’s Demo-2 flight, Starliner CFT will only stay on station for a few days before returning to Earth. This mission will be to fully certify Boeing’s spacecraft for commercial operations with NASA.
Unlike SpaceX, Boeing doesn’t have any other customers but NASA for missions over the rest of the decade. While the future of Starliner after the ISS seems bleak, the company is determined to finish out its obligations of six crew rotations.
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