Crew Dragon, the NASA SpaceX collaborative project, is all set to be launched this Halloween on October 31. This is the programme’s first-ever crewed operation flight, following the demo which flew NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the ISS in August.
They had originally planned for an October 23rd launch but had to later push it to the end of October due to the delay in checking the issues of the Soyuz capsule.
In an announcement by NASA, they said, “The new target date will deconflict the Crew-1 launch and arrival from upcoming Soyuz launch and landing operations. This additional time is needed to ensure closure of all open work, both on the ground and aboard the station, ahead of the Crew-1 arrival. The increased spacing also will provide a good window of opportunity to conduct additional testing to isolate the station atmosphere leak if required. SpaceX continues to make progress on preparations of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket, and the adjusted date allows the teams additional time for completing open work ahead of launch.”
This mission is set to take astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi to the ISS. The crew is to be docked at the ISS and the capsule will launch on top of a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Halloween at around 2:40 AM Eastern time.