Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

Weather looks good for SpaceX Crew Dragon return, despite hurricane Isaias

By

NASA and SpaceX plan to go ahead with the return mission for the brand new Crew Dragon capsule from the International Space Station on Saturday, August 1, although a hurricane off the Florida coast could necessitate a delay to the mission if it moves closer to the landing sites.

Earlier this week, there had been concerns that a tropical cyclone developing in the Caribbean could necessitate a delay of the mission. The issue is that high winds can cause problems during splashdown procedures, so the NASA team require wind speeds of less than 15 feet per second, or 10 miles an hour, to give the go-ahead for the departure of the Crew Dragon from the space station.

Recommended Videos

However, the latest briefing from the Air Force 45th Weather Squadron indicated that the mission was safe to go ahead. NASA says that it is continuing to monitor Hurricane Isaias, which is moving close to the Florida coast, and it will evaluate whether the weather will affect the chosen landing sites off the Florida coast. The agency will make a final decision about whether the mission should go ahead nearer to the planned undocking time.

Related

“Conditions remain ‘Go’ at several of the needed target locations for splashdown and recovery off the Florida coast on Sunday aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon ‘Endeavour’ spacecraft,” NASA wrote in a blog post. “NASA and SpaceX will make a decision on a primary splashdown target approximately 6 hours before undocking Saturday.”

NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (left) and Doug Hurley (right) participate in a test of the Crew Dragon capsule
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (left) and Doug Hurley (right) participate in a test of the Crew Dragon capsule on Monday, March 20, 2020, at a SpaceX processing facility on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Demo-2 mission was successfully launched on Saturday, May 30, 2020. NASA

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine confirmed on Twitter that the mission looked good to go ahead as scheduled. “Teams from @NASA and @SpaceX remain GO with plans to bring @Astro_Doug and @AstroBehnken home to Earth on Sunday afternoon,” he wrote. “We will continue to monitor weather before undocking Saturday night.”

SpaceX, NASA’s commercial partner which designed and built the Crew Dragon craft, also confirmed that plans for the mission were going ahead, with the same time and date of 7:34 p.m. ET on August 1 planned for undocking of the craft from the International Space Station.

If you want to watch the undocking and splashdown, we’ve got all the details on how to watch the events live.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Georgina Torbet
Georgina Torbet
Space Writer
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
SpaceX shares photos of Starship ahead of sixth flight on Tuesday
SpaceX's Starship ahead of its sixth test flight.

SpaceX is just a couple of days away from sending its enormous Starship rocket on its sixth test flight from its facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

The mission had originally targeted Monday, November 18, for the launch of the vehicle -- comprising the main-stage Super Heavy booster and the upper-stage Starship spacecraft -- but on Friday, SpaceX pushed the launch to Tuesday, November 19. Here's how to watch a livestream of the mission.

Read more
See SpaceX’s mighty Starship on the launchpad ahead of sixth test flight
spacex starship on pad sixth test flight gcnypiwa4aaqgll 75

As SpaceX gears up for the sixth test flight of its mighty Starship, the company has shared images of the rocket out on the launchpad at the Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. The images capture the striking view of the almost 400-foot-tall rocket, with the 165-foot-tall upper stage mounted on top of the Super Heavy booster.

The test flight is scheduled for Monday, November 18, with the aim being to test new facilities such as burning one of the Raptor engines on the upper stage while in space to test future abilities to perform a deorbit burn. The company will also be hoping to once again catch the incoming booster for reuse using the giant "chopsticks" at its pad, as it previously did for the first time during the fifth test flight of the Starship in October.

Read more
SpaceX Dragon to give the International Space Station an altitude boost today
A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft docked at the space station.

Friday will see a new event for the International Space Station (ISS) as a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is used to boost its altitude for the first time. As drag works on the space station, its altitude gradually degrades over time, and so it needs to be given an occasional push to keep it at its correct altitude, around 250 miles from the Earth's surface.

The reboost is scheduled for today, November 8, as one of the Dragons that is currently docked to the space station will fire its thrusters for around 12.5 minutes. There are currently two Dragons docked -- one of which carried crew and one of which carried cargo to the station. The cargo vehicle will perform the boost maneuver. As this is the first time this has been attempted, NASA and SpaceX personnel will observe the event carefully.

Read more