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We take you live now to coverage of NASA and SpaceX preparing to launch the Crew 10 mission to the International Space Station to relieve the current handover. | |
| The mission is set to lift on from the Kennedy Space Center at 7.48 p.m. Eastern. | ||
| We have such incredible training, really extensive on all the pieces of hardware and some of the experimental pieces of hardware as well, but nothing really prepares you for the nuances of what the actual situation is on board. | ||
| So it's really important to get those tips and tricks from the experienced astronauts. | ||
| And even for the second-time flyers like Ann and Talk, the space station is a different place than it is when they were on it previously. | ||
| There's probably some different pieces of hardware and some different systems. | ||
| Things may be done a little bit differently than when they were there before. | ||
| So they'll get a lot of insight into operations up there and just really kind of get used to doing things. | ||
| And that 2 plus 2 is two travel days and two days of direct handover? | ||
| Yeah, it's two days of real handover where the two crews are really overlapping and have that dedicated time to handover activities. | ||
| And then the two other two is one arrival day and one departure day. | ||
| So that's what makes up that two plus two. | ||
| And these handover times can be really variable. | ||
| We strive to have enough handover so that we can instill enough confidence in that new crew before the previous experienced crew departs. | ||
| But we are so tied in with the ground teams now and we also have been operating up there for so many years. | ||
| This November will actually mark the 25th year of continuous human presence on the International Space Station. | ||
| That's amazing. | ||
| So it is truly an incredible feat. | ||
| But because of that, we've done things a lot of times that we have pretty well-potted procedures. | ||
| So sometimes that handover, it can be replaced by our interactions with the ground team as well. | ||
| We strive to maintain as much of it as we can, but sometimes coming and goings of different activities and different spacecraft dictate differences in that plan. | ||
| And also, you know, we are aiming for this four-day handover period, but we don't know exactly what it will end up as because, of course, we have to have good weather conditions back on the ground before we will undock Crew 9's vehicle. | ||
| So in the end, we could have a slightly different than this 2 plus 2 handover that we're expecting, but we have to plan for something. | ||
| It really can vary, as you mentioned, because splashdown weather is a critical component, as you mentioned, before the crew can come down. | ||
| And that's pretty unpredictable for where they will be coming down. | ||
| Though I was talking to one of our meteorologists here at the Kennedy Space Center, and I asked, well, you know, we have such wonderful weather this time of year. | ||
| Is it more beneficial this time of year to be launching and doing the missions? | ||
| And she says, well, not necessarily. | ||
| Winds really get kicked up this time of year. | ||
| We have fronts coming through. | ||
| We had one come through. | ||
| Winds today, you can see the flags blowing out there by our press site at Launch Complex 39. | ||
| You know, they're pretty tame today, just in the teens. | ||
| But earlier, when that front first went through, we even had a tornado pop up in the central Florida area. | ||
| So winds are a watch item, and they will certainly be something that they will be looking at in the Gulf and the Atlantic where we have opportunities for the splashdown sites. | ||
| But to the point of weather, they added a location in Tortuga, which is not far from Key West, just to give them more options for getting ideal weather in ideal sea states. | ||
| One thing you don't want is the astronauts bouncing around after they've just gotten back from state from space in seas that are like, you know, 10 feet. | ||
| That would be terrible. | ||
| Right, exactly. | ||
| Certainly would not be appreciated by the astronauts, but more importantly, those limits exist because of the structural components of the vehicle itself. | ||
| So we want to make sure that we still can make everybody and the people inside and the vehicle safe when they're landing, and that's why we have those wind requirements, which relate also to the height of the waves. | ||
| We are currently at T-min one hour and 32 minutes and counting until the crew 10 flies to the International Space Station. | ||
| We're getting ready to do a health check in just a few minutes of the launch escape system. | ||
| Of course, the launch escape system, a critical component of the Endurance spacecraft. | ||
| You're looking at the crew right there. | ||
| On the left, Ross Cosmos cosmonaut and mission specialist Kirill Peskoff. | ||
| Yeah, that launch escape system will be armed two minutes before they start loading the propellant. | ||
| And of course, that's for good reason because we're sitting now on top of this incredibly combustive material. | ||
| And that will stay armed. | ||
| The escape system will stay armed through orbital insertion. | ||
| And either the ground or the crew can send that command. | ||
| It has eight Super Draco thrusters that fire in order to bring the crew to safety. | ||
| And those thrusters are specific to the abort system. | ||
| So they're only used for that abort system. | ||
| The crew can actually hear it arm with a very loud thump, and then they can hear the fueling of the valves and they can hear the flow of the fuel as well. | ||
| There's a T handle on board that the crew can activate if they needed to jettison themselves to safety. | ||
| And we'll hear those calls once we have liftoff and we're getting into those different phases of abort. | ||
| We'll actually hear Ann McLean make those calls and we will know exactly where they are in terms of those flight phases for which aspects, which areas of the flight profile they're on. | ||
| We will hear that health check coming over the loops here in just about a minute, a little less than a minute. | ||
| You know, we think about these abort systems, and certainly it's something that we never want to have to use. | ||
| But when we do have the few occasions when we do use them, it's actually an incredible test and gives us a lot of faith in these systems. | ||
| And that escape system I was reading can move Dragon half a mile in only seven and a half seconds, equivalent to a peak velocity of 436 miles per hour. | ||
| I imagine in training, you've got to be ready for those kind of Gs. | ||
| Yeah, absolutely. | ||
| We have some centrifuge training in order to familiarize ourselves with that G profile. | ||
| So, for example, for me as a Soyuz flyer, we went up to about 8 Gs, and that is to prepare for any off-nominal entry. | ||
| Normally, an entry, like for my entry, I experienced only about 4.1 Gs during the landing profile. | ||
| And you're also in the Soyuz, you're also using, practicing if you had to control that descent and the trajectory of that descent. | ||
| You know, we talk about these abort systems, and it really reminds me of Nick Haig's and Alexei of Chinin's abort in 2018, and that was on the Soyuz, of course. | ||
| And again, it was, of course, a pretty scary moment for all of us, but in the end, a wonderful testament to these systems. | ||
| This is why they exist. | ||
| And in that case, there was a problem with a rocket, and it happened at about 30 miles up. | ||
| They went up to about 50 miles, and after the escape system had fired, they experienced around six and a half to seven G's, and then they came back safely to the Earth. | ||
| So, pretty interesting test of that. | ||
| Again, not something we ever want to use, but certainly something that's a very vital component to all of these launch systems. | ||
| I remember that well. | ||
| There's some anxious moments there. | ||
| And your fellow classmate from your astronaut class, Nick Haig, was, right? | ||
| So I'm sure you got the full story on that. | ||
| Yeah, I remember it very well as well. | ||
| We were in Russia. | ||
| I was training for my flight. | ||
| I was there with Christina Cook as well. | ||
| And we were viewing it from a small control room that we have at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. | ||
| So we were paying attention to that whole launch sequence, and we started getting some indications that things were a little outside of the ordinary. | ||
| And I'll never forget that moment when Nick was back. | ||
| I mean, he was back with us at the cottages in which we live in Star City in a very short amount of time. | ||
| And I remember coming back from class and jumping off my bicycle. | ||
| Both Christina and I ran over to him and just gave him the biggest hug. | ||
| And it just seems so strange to see him back there when we knew that he was supposed to be leaving the planet for quite some time. | ||
| It was just, you know, the day prior. | ||
| So here's a good shot of the crew members. | ||
| They have ingressed the vehicle, they have completed the pressure checks of their spacesuits, and the hatch has been closed. | ||
| We are standing by, getting ready for the propellant load pull, which would be the next big milestone for the crew today. | ||
| Dragon SpaceX for post-ingress briefing. | ||
| Take that, Dragon. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| Just wanted to give you a quick update. | ||
| We are still discussing the hydraulic system performance. | ||
| They did finish those kinematics tests and they look nominal, but we are still in discussions and evaluating the system for flight readiness. | ||
| But otherwise, F9 and Dragon are tracking no other issues for flight. | ||
| Take that, Dragon. | ||
| Quick happy call. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| So you've just heard that update from the SpaceX teams. | ||
| They are still monitoring the hydraulics for the clamp arm system that's holding the Falcon 9 in place. | ||
| And so still making some evaluations there. | ||
| The good news is they're not tracking any other technical issues. | ||
| So hopefully we will get to a good place with this one and can continue on toward launch today. | ||
| Speaking of launches, NASA and SpaceX joint launches, there was a very interesting launch just last night from the Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Falcon 9, and that was the Sphere X and PUNCH missions. | ||
| The Sphere X is a spectrophotometer that is really looking at the history of the universe. | ||
| And it is using near-infrared spectrometry as a near-infrared space observatory that's going to be what's providing comprehensive all-sky survey of the near-infrared spectra of 450 million galaxies. | ||
| So really cool stuff here that it's basically a telescope that's taking images of our skies in the infrared and providing a map of the universe. | ||
| And it will allow us to interpret a sort of history of our skies as one of the scientists described like time travel so that we will see what happened even one second after the Big Bang and start having a better understanding of the origins of the universe. | ||
| Another system that was on board the same rocket was the PUNCH experiment. | ||
| That's four small satellites that are looking at the solar corona. | ||
| So that's the outer atmosphere of the sun and will give us a lot more insight into what is happening in that layer of atmosphere on the sun. | ||
| So some really incredible scientific instruments that NASA and SpaceX launched together just last night. | ||
| Another view of the crew here waiting patiently for their next update. | ||
| Jessica, the Dragon Spacecraft Endurance will take Crew 10 to space today. | ||
| And as we've been talking about, it's the fourth flight for the capsule. | ||
| Since its first flight in 2021 for Crew 3, SpaceX's Endurance Dragon has been a workhorse for NASA's commercial crew program, flying mission after mission. | ||
| It has safely carried astronauts to the International Space Station. | ||
| With Crew-7, Endurance proved its reliability yet again, marking its third journey to orbit. | ||
| In all, Endurance has flown 10 astronauts and two cosmonauts to and from the International Space Station, and it's supported crews from NASA, ESA, JAXA, and Roscosmos. | ||
| And we are currently at 1 hour and 19 minutes until liftoff of Crew 10 on a Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station. | ||
| One astronaut and one cosmonaut will be the latest crew to fly as part of the NASA commercial crew program. | ||
| The program uses private companies to transport people to and from the orbiting lab from U.S. soil. | ||
| We've had a good countdown so far. | ||
| Weather is almost perfect, 95% go. | ||
| We do have an issue that SpaceX is looking at on the ground side. | ||
| It has to do with the hydraulic system for the clamp arms, one of the clamp arms. | ||
| Clamp arms hold the Falcon 9 rocket to the transporter rector. | ||
| They will be giving, they have been giving the crew inside Endurance updates as they've been going along. | ||
| And they're going to give them another update here soon. | ||
| We know that they also let the crew know that they would be testing that hydraulic system. | ||
| No danger to the crew at all in order to test that system. | ||
| So they went ahead and cycled those valves. | ||
| They're gathering data and continuing to work that. | ||
| They have up until the launch escape system arm, which is T-minus 45 minutes to make a call. | ||
| Just inside the spacecraft, it's pretty calm inside there, as we've been seeing, the crew. | ||
| What are you feeling in a moment like this? | ||
| You know, I think it's probably different for everybody. | ||
| You know, maybe as the commander and the pilot are probably kind of rehearsing the big things that they're going to be monitoring on those displays. | ||
| I know that for me in the left seat of the Soyuz, there was quite a choreography and procedures that we're following every step of the way. | ||
| And so I was paying very close attention to everything that was happening on my screen. | ||
| And just preparing to follow along and do all the things that we had done in all the training and all of the simulations. | ||
| And we are thinking about everything that's going to happen, you know, thinking about what happened earlier today, saying goodbye to our family members. | ||
| And most likely, though, I would say, really just concentrating on the job at hand and the task at hand. | ||
| You are really intimately connected with everything that's going on aboard that vehicle through all these intense simulations that we've done. | ||
| And so you are waiting for that next big moment and ready to do what you've been trying to do. | ||
| Good afternoon. | ||
| You're watching live launch coverage of NASA and SpaceX's 10th rotational flight to the International Space Station. | ||
| I'm NASA's Daryl Nail, and with us is NASA astronaut Jessica Muir. | ||
| It's so good to have you. | ||
| You've been with us for the past three hours doing commentary. | ||
| You're back since doing Crew 7, and it's so wonderful to have you here again. | ||
| Thank you, Daryl. | ||
| It is so wonderful to be back here, you know, with a classmate of mine on board, my friends and colleagues from various space agencies. | ||
| It just feels incredible to be playing a role in some way in sending them off on their mission. | ||
| Let's talk a little bit about your missions from the past. | ||
| In 2019, Jessica Muir and Christina Cook made history with the first all-women spacewalk, the 221st for Space Station Assembly. | ||
| Two years later, Jessica served as the astronaut support person for Crew 2, helping the team all the way to the launch tower. | ||
| There she is, number 38. | ||
| More recently, she was over at Launch Pad 39B, where she rehearsed with the Artemis II crew, once again in the role of astronaut support person. | ||
| But this time, that crew was practicing for their mission around the moon. | ||
| Looks like you were having a good time, though. | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| You know, it's one of the best things about our job is serving in all these different capacities with our buddies along the way and knowing that we're playing a role in helping them prepare for their missions and also just broadening our own skill sets for whatever we might do in the future. | ||
| One of the best parts I think about being an astronaut, we're just doing different things all the time. | ||
| A lot of times the roles that we fulfill are very active. | ||
| You know, we're doing jet training, we're learning how to use and practicing with the spacesuits. | ||
| We're taking a Russian class. | ||
| We're learning about onboard systems. | ||
| We're testing out something for an entirely new vehicle for the Artemis missions. | ||
| So always fun and exciting. | ||
| And we've got some beautiful views that we've been looking at of the launch pad 39A out there where our rocket's going to be taking off just after sunset at 7.48 p.m. Eastern Time. | ||
| We're expecting a beautiful launch tonight, Jessica. | ||
| It'll be in twilight, which as we know around here, for people who watch rocket launches, once that thing gets off the pad, it'll be a little dark on the ground, but very light up high where the rocket will be doing its separation from the first stage and see all kinds of rocket exhaust being illuminated by the sun. | ||
| It will definitely be a gorgeous view, very special lighting in that twilight period. | ||
| So it will be quite a show for everybody on the ground here in Florida. | ||
| Looking forward to watching it with you. | ||
| Jessica, of course, has been gracious enough to spend the last three hours providing her inside analysis about the pre-launch operations and milestones as we count down to launch of Crew 10. | ||
| Liftoff time still holding for 7.48 p.m. Eastern Time and 57 seconds for those who like to know it right down to the dot. | ||
| Crew 10, ready to go. | ||
| All right, let's check in with our team at SpaceX who will be providing us commentary along with our NASA commentator. | ||
| How are you guys doing this afternoon? | ||
| Hey, Daryl. | ||
| I'm Jesse Anderson, a senior production and engineering manager here at SpaceX. | ||
| And I'm Anna Schneider with NASA Communications. | ||
| We're excited to be joining you from Mission Control here in Hawthorne as we count down to liftoff of Crew 10 just over an hour from now. | ||
| Of course, Crew 10 is our 10th operational mission with SpaceX, flying astronauts for long-duration missions to the International Space Station. | ||
| Crew 10 will have two first-time flyers on board, as well as a veteran NASA astronaut and veteran Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA astronaut. | ||
| And the multinational crew also represents three different space agencies with NASA, JAXA, and Ross Cosmos all represented on board. | ||
| Today's crew will fly aboard the Dragon spacecraft named Endurance, which previously flew the Crew-3, Crew-5, and Crew-7 missions. | ||
| Overall, this will be Dragon's 46th visit to the space station and its 14th human spaceflight to the orbiting lab, which includes NASA's commercial crew program missions and private astronaut missions with Axiom Space. | ||
| And over the last three plus hours, Crew-10 has been going through the detailed process of getting ready for their mission to the International Space Station. | ||
| So let's go ahead and take a moment to introduce you to the crew flying today. | ||
| In the commander seat is NASA astronaut Anne McClain. | ||
| She's making her second trip to low Earth orbit. | ||
| The Spokane Washington native and U.S. Army Colonel was selected by NASA as an astronaut in 2013 and has spent a total of 204 days in space, completing two spacewalks totaling 13 hours and eight minutes outside of the orbiting laboratory. | ||
| Next to McLean in the pilot seat is Nicole Ayers, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2021. | ||
| The Colorado native graduated from the Air Force Academy and is a Colorado Springs in Colorado Springs and is a major in the U.S. Air Force. | ||
| This is the first space flight for Ayers. | ||
| Serving as a mission specialist is JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi. | ||
| Today's flight will mark Onishi's second trip to the space station and he was selected as an astronaut by JAXA in 2009, logging 113 days in space previously. | ||
| Now to round it all out is Ross Cosmos cosmaut Krill Peskov also serving as a mission specialist. | ||
| Peskov was selected as a cosmonaut in 2018 and will be making his first space flight today as well. | ||
| Once on board the International Space Station, Crew 10 will briefly become members of Expedition 72 and then Expedition 73 in April. | ||
| During their mission, they will conduct space station maintenance along with scientific research to understand material flammability, contributing to future spacecraft design and study how spaceflight affects human physiology and psychology. | ||
| The crew will also engage with students worldwide via ham radio and use its existing hardware with newly integrated software to test a backup lunar navigation solution. | ||
| Now to date, SpaceX has flown 56 crew members to space since the Demo 2 mission in May of 2020, almost five years ago. | ||
| Now coming up here at T-45 minutes, we'll be listening for the team to report their readiness for propellant load with a final go-no-go pull. | ||
| It continues to be a smooth countdown so far. | ||
| We're looking good for an on-time liftoff at 748 p.m. Eastern Time from Launch Complex 39A in Florida. | ||
| Now here on the ground, the teams will be staffed around the clock in mission control just behind us to monitor Dragon and the mission, not just today, but throughout the entire mission. | ||
| That's from liftoff to Crew 10's arrival at the space station all the way through splashdown when the astronauts return back home. | ||
| And on console or headset in mission control, which you can see there on your screen, there are six key positions. | ||
| The mission director is in charge in the room and tasked with making real-time decisions to ensure mission success. | ||
| Now the person that you may hear talking to the astronauts is the crew operations and resources engineer, which you'll hear us refer to as the core throughout the broadcast. | ||
| And the four additional team members are focused on vehicle systems, including avionics, navigation and control, software, propulsion, life support, and communication with ground support teams. | ||
| Now, apart from mission control, our Falcon 9 team is currently located in the Launch and Landing Control Center at Hangar X. | ||
| And with less than a minute, or I'm sorry, with just over an hour until launch, they are settling in for final checkouts, propellant loading, and launch. | ||
| And NASA has its very own team members as well at NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas, who have been preparing the International Space Station for Dragon's arrival. | ||
| After launch today, Dragon is scheduled to dock to the International Space Station early tomorrow morning on March 13th. | ||
| And the teams in Mission Control Houston recently gave their go for launch, confirming the space station is ready to receive Dragon and the new crew. | ||
| Following liftoff, today's flight to the space station will take around 11 hours with Dragon flying autonomously the entire way. | ||
| Now docking again is targeted for 3 a.m. Pacific, 6 a.m. Eastern tomorrow, March 13th. | ||
| And just like autopilot on a commercial aircraft, the crew always has the ability to take manual control of the spacecraft if needed. | ||
| And before all that happens, as the booster returns to the launch site and slows down from supersonic speeds, people in the immediate area may hear a brief double clap of a thunder-like sound known as a sonic boom. | ||
| Similar sonic booms like this were heard during the return and landing of the space shuttle, and sonic booms like these are one of the hallmarks of reusable systems like Falcon. | ||
| Here's what some of these booster returns have looked and sounded like on previous missions. | ||
| I know a lot of people will be excited when they hear the sonic boom. | ||
| And these are going to provide quite a show because you're going to hear the sonic moves. | ||
| That thunderclap broke the sound barrier. | ||
| Appreciate it, sir. | ||
| We're now at T-minus one hour, four minutes and counting down to today's launch. | ||
| While we wait, let's check in with NASA's Leah Cheshire at Johnson Space Center to see how things are shaping up at Mission Control in Houston. | ||
| Leah? | ||
| Leah? | ||
| Thanks, Jesse and Ana. | ||
| I would really love to hear one of those sonic booms in Florida, but today we are here at the Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. | ||
| This is really NASA's hub of human spaceflight, and the team here is ready for launch. | ||
| The International Space Station is ready for the crew to lift off as they begin their journey to the orbiting laboratory. | ||
| Now, in the home stretch of the rendezvous, NASA and SpaceX flight controllers will enter into integrated operations. | ||
| This means both flight control teams will conduct a series of go-know-go polls for Dragon Endurance's docking to the space station. | ||
| Rotation missions like Crew-10 help NASA continue to maximize the important research and technology demonstrations made possible only in the International Space Station's unique microgravity environment. | ||
| The space station is critical for NASA to prepare for future commercial low-Earth orbit destinations and to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight necessary for a long-term presence on the moon and crewed missions deeper into the solar system. | ||
| Yes, I am talking about Mars. | ||
| Now, here's a closer look at the mission and what Crew-10 will have to look forward to during their stay aboard the International Space Station. | ||
| The Crew-10 mission is going to be a rotational mission to the International Space Station. | ||
| So we will launch aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule and the Falcon 9 rocket. | ||
| I'm just enjoying the way towards the launch. | ||
| Of course, I'm looking forward for the day of launch. | ||
| And we are going to stay there about a half a year. | ||
| So the first goal of Crew-10 is to continue learning about the Dragon and the Falcon 9 rocket that we're going to be flying on to enable SpaceX to continue their development of rockets and even private astronaut missions in the future. | ||
| The other mission is to get us safely to the International Space Station so that we can crew this incredible national orbiting laboratory that we have and continue the science experiments that we have ongoing there. | ||
| One of the unique characteristics of the International Space Station is microgravity. | ||
| We get to learn how humans and plants and other types of hardware react in the space environment and the microgravity environment. | ||
| And it helps us to develop all kinds of new materials, medicines, and it helps us to push our knowledge forward. | ||
| The discoveries that we make on board the International Space Station then inform what we do on Earth and it allows us to further both humankind here on Earth and get to further places in the universe. | ||
| So I've often been asked why we explore and I think it's different for everybody. | ||
| When people are born, they naturally want to explore their environment first as babies and then as kids and finally as adults. | ||
| That's how we expand our world and that's how we find something new. | ||
| Every time that we make a further step we learn something and we learn how to adapt and that is so important to humanity. | ||
| This is probably the main things which drives us forward and helps us to survive as a species. | ||
| There are so many unknowns in space and as explorers and as humans we want to find out what's in that unknown. | ||
| For me, it's the fact that I get to be a small piece of figuring out what the unknown is and taking that next step to get to the moon and to Mars and the Artemis program. | ||
| Our ultimate goal is to go to Mars, but it's not an easy journey. | ||
| And when we face a new challenge, we must solve it step by step. | ||
| I think that's one of the biggest benefits of the International Space Station. | ||
| We're outside of the atmosphere, and now we don't have the protection of the atmosphere. | ||
| What happens? | ||
| And how do we better prepare our people, our hardware, our food, our water systems for that deep space exploration? | ||
| It's really important on the space station that we learn those lessons now when we're in low Earth orbit. | ||
| That way we know what we need to bring with us when we go onto the moon with the Artemis program. | ||
| One of the things that we do on the International Space Station is work with our international partners all across the world. | ||
| I think it's hard to overestimate the value of international cooperation and space exploration because we all know that it takes much time and effort. | ||
| Space is hard, it's very challenging, it's sometimes unpredictable. | ||
| And that's why I think cooperation is a key to success. | ||
| The International Space Station wouldn't be international without all of our partners, and our goal is to be a beacon of hope for all of humankind so that people can look and say, this is what we can accomplish when we work together. | ||
| I asked Anne what she's most looking forward to, as well as Nicole, and she says it's really satisfying for her to work on hardware with her hands, then get it into the Japanese airlock, and then go see it working outside in space, which I thought was pretty cool. | ||
| Yeah, that is one of the perks for sure. | ||
| All the different things that we're doing every day, whether or not you're just being an operator or a subject for an experiment, loading up the Japanese airlock. | ||
| That was one thing that we did several times during my mission where we were deploying some small satellites via that airlock. | ||
| So we did all the work of configuring them and putting them through, and then we watched them shoot out and be in orbit around Earth. | ||
| So really. | ||
| That's pretty cool. | ||
| That's neat. | ||
| And Nicole said that she's looking forward to anything that has to do with fluid dynamics because that's what she got her master's in. | ||
| So looking forward to that. | ||
| We got some social questions for you. | ||
| You've been doing a great job for the past four hours answering them. | ||
| Let's take a listen at this question, or rather, I will read it and you can listen as we get your expertise while looking at a beautiful shot outside at Launch Complex 39A. | ||
| The question from Oxidize 93 is, how do you brush your teeth in space? | ||
| Well, the short answer is just like you do on Earth. | ||
| But a few nuances. | ||
| You know, water behaves so differently when it's not falling down. | ||
| So the surface tension is much more important. | ||
| It keeps those water droplets together. | ||
| So you can just get a small water drop of them on your toothbrush, either before or after you're toothpaste. | ||
| Brush your teeth just like you do on Earth. | ||
| And then no sink, unfortunately. | ||
| So you've got to figure out what to do with anything else that's in there. | ||
| Some people might swallow it. | ||
| I usually would spit mine out into a small wipe or a towel and we have a go through a few towels per week. | ||
| I favor the latter like you. | ||
| We have another question. | ||
| Let's pop it up real quick. | ||
| Peter Strafronik asks, do astronauts get any music played to the capsule before launch? | ||
| Hope music. | ||
| Yeah, in the Soyuz we did for sure while we had a long wait period. | ||
| We had actually curated our own list. | ||
| We each contributed a few songs, so... | ||
| 4.100. | ||
| SpaceX Dragon, go ahead. | ||
| We are continuing to track the hydraulics issue and we'll provide an update as we get closer to LES Arm. | ||
| However, at this time, you are go for section 5. | ||
| When ready, report go for launch. | ||
| SpaceX, Tragon, copy 4.100, Section 5 didn't work. | ||
| All right, you heard SpaceX update the crew there that they are still working on the hydraulic issue for the clamp arm, building their flight rationale. | ||
| They'll have an update for them. | ||
| We'll find out how they're going to proceed forward. | ||
| But in the meantime, they're moving with the next milestone, getting ready to arm the launch escape system. | ||
| Let's get out now to Megan Cruz, who is with a special guest at a nearby launch viewing location. | ||
| Megan? | ||
| Hey, Darrell and Jessica. | ||
| Yeah, you might be able to hear the crowd, but I promise you, there is a big crowd here just off camera over here. | ||
| And they're here on the fifth floor of a nearby building that really gives an incredible view of the launch pad just to the left of me. | ||
| But yeah, let's introduce you to somebody that we have with us today. | ||
| You know, there are people across Florida as well as Texas, California, all working the launch. | ||
| And one of those folks is Mike Ravenscroft. | ||
| He's with NASA's Commercial Crew Program. | ||
| And he just stepped off console a few minutes ago to be able to chat with us. | ||
| It's really great to have you here, Mike. | ||
| Hello, Megan. | ||
| I'm glad to be here. | ||
| Thanks. | ||
| Appreciate everything. | ||
| All right, Mike, I know. | ||
| Mike, it says, crew is go for launch. | ||
| You know, why don't you talk to us about the issue with the clamp arms that we've been tracking? | ||
| I think we just heard the decision about that issue with the clamp arms. | ||
| Yeah, so the team's been really hard at it. | ||
| The SpaceX and NASA teams working hard on a ground hydraulics, a ground hydraulics issue on the vehicle release system. | ||
| So they've been actively working this. | ||
| I think we just heard them talk to the crew and give them a heads up of the issue, and they're still actively working that. | ||
| This is a concern basically of just how the vehicle is held in place and during release when the vehicle is at liftoff. | ||
| So teams are actively working that and hopefully we get resolution soon and can continue on with countdown. | ||
| And Mike, you know, we just said that you stepped off console. | ||
| What does that mean to be on console? | ||
| And yeah, what is your team listening for, especially particularly with this issue that is currently being worked? | ||
| Yeah, so the team's looking for any issues with respect to how the performance is. | ||
| They compare it to previous history. | ||
| Was there anything abnormal from when we had static fire to today? | ||
| And so they're off actively looking at that data and between SpaceX and NASA teams discussing if we have a path forward and if we can continue and get resolution. | ||
| Okay, well Mike, why don't we let you get back on console? | ||
| We know that again we are actively working an issue with your teammates there so we really appreciate you being here. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| Thanks Megan. | ||
| All right, guys, let us get another update with our SpaceX counterparts and our NASA counterparts over at Hawthorne. | ||
| Falcon 9 is the first orbital-class rocket capable of reflight. | ||
| Together Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy have completed more than 450 launches and over 380 reflights. | ||
| And today the booster will be attempting to land at Landing Zone 1 which is just down the coast from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. | ||
| This will be the second flight of the first stage booster supporting the Crew 10 mission. | ||
| Rapid reusability drastically reduces launch costs, helps increase launch frequency, and enables a wide array of new government, commercial, and scientific opportunities in space. | ||
| Lowering the cost of access to space is helping take humanity's steps into the solar system whether in low Earth orbit, interplanetary, or even deep space. | ||
| When costs are lower, government and commercial customers can launch more missions, which helps accelerate development. | ||
| This also helps commercial satellite and private research customers afford to launch more projects to space, which helps stimulate innovation here on Earth. | ||
| All of this to say, reusability is the key innovation that is making space more accessible for the industry as a whole. | ||
| And just like the first stage of Falcon 9, Dragon is also reusable. | ||
| The reusable Dragon spacecraft has flown people to the International Space Station 13 times. | ||
| And as we mentioned earlier, today's crew will fly aboard the same Dragon that previously flew the Crew-3, Crew-5, and Crew-7 missions. | ||
| For more than a decade, Falcon 9 has supported 45 missions to the International Space Station with our Dragon spacecraft, starting with our first cargo resupply mission, then returning human spaceflight capabilities to the U.S., and even helping launch two additional cargo missions with Northrop Grumman's Cygnus. | ||
| All of these missions have enabled science and research to be conducted in low Earth orbit at the International Space Station. | ||
| The space station also plays a key role in enabling a robust economy in low Earth orbit. | ||
| In addition to supporting private astronaut missions, the station is open for commercial and marketing activities proposed by industry and is supporting commercial companies conducting research as well as in-space manufacturing initiatives and aiding the development of technologies for commercial space stations. | ||
| As part of these initiatives, SpaceX has supported the next generation of commercial space exploration with the launch of three private astronaut missions to the station in partnership with Axiom Space, with a fourth mission slated for this spring. | ||
| But SpaceX's drive to unlock space does not end there. | ||
| In 2021, SpaceX launched Inspiration 4 on a three-day journey around Earth. | ||
| And there you could see some of the footage from that mission on your screen. | ||
| It was the first all-civilian mission to space, and missions like Inspiration 4, Polaris Dawn, and the upcoming FROM2 allow commercial astronauts to conduct research and other activities in microgravity and demonstrate new technologies while orbiting Earth. | ||
| As some of you may recall, last year the Polaris Dawn crew reached the highest Earth orbit ever flown since the Apollo program, participated in the first ever extravehicular activity, or BBA, from Dragon wearing SpaceX-developed EVA suits, and conducted 36 research studies and experiments designed to advance both human health on Earth and during long-duration spaceflight. | ||
| All of these missions are helping set the stage for future missions to the moon, Mars, and beyond. | ||
| And for nearly 25 years, NASA has supported a continuous presence in low Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station. | ||
| And just yesterday, the space station surpassed over 150,000 total orbits of the Earth. | ||
| Now, NASA plans to transition to a new model featuring commercial space stations to ensure a sustained access to low Earth orbit for microgravity research. | ||
| Our commercial low Earth orbit development program is using a two-phase approach to first support the design and development of commercial space stations and second enable the agency to purchase services as one of many customers. | ||
| Definitely exciting times ahead in the world of commercial space. | ||
| Absolutely, very exciting. | ||
| Now back to today's mission. | ||
| We are coming up on T-minus 50 minutes here to launch and our teams are carefully moving through the pre-flight process. | ||
| Now a lot of preparations have brought us to this point including a dry dress rehearsal and static fire on Sunday. | ||
| A dry dress rehearsal is a practice run before launch where all of the steps are conducted except for the loading of propellants which is why we call it dry. | ||
| The integrated spacecraft and rocket are rolled out to the pad and raised vertically and the crew and all the support teams go through their steps exactly how they would on launch day to make sure that they're ready when we do go for launch. | ||
| However, during static fire, during a static fire test, which we also did earlier this week, the crew is not present. | ||
| Now propellants are loaded and the engines on the boosters are fired for a few seconds while the rocket is held down to the launch mount. | ||
| The data from the static fire test is then reviewed and incorporated into NASA and SpaceX's decision to proceed with launch. | ||
| And all of that hard work now brings us to today. | ||
| And next up in our countdown, SpaceX's launch director will check in with the team for readiness, both for propellant load and for launch. | ||
| As mentioned earlier, the Dragon launch team, as well as key NASA launch members, are in the Launch and Landing Control Center at SpaceX's Hangar X in Florida. | ||
| The launch director will also check in with the Dragon mission director, referred to as MD, and NASA Launch Manager to make sure they're ready to move forward. | ||
| Right now, the crew is on board Dragon, waiting to get the green light to stow the crew arm for launch and arm the launch escape system. | ||
| Once the launch director gives the go-ahead, we should get a good view of the access arm moving away from the spacecraft. | ||
| Now we're still tracking that one issue with the hydraulics, so we should hear the final decision on that before we get to that crew access arm stowage. | ||
| And the range continues to be go for launch, currently monitoring the clearance area surrounding our launch pad as well as the air and sea space along the flight corridor. | ||
| And the weather is also looking good so far. | ||
| Weather is trending in the right direction and we're currently at a less than 5% chance of violation at our target lift-on time, which is great. | ||
| Our teams will continue to keep an eye on the weather and we'll have our final pre-fueling weather briefing at about T minus 45 minutes, which is just about three minutes from now. | ||
| And there on your screen, you can see a live view of Falcon 9 and Dragon at the launch pad, Launch Complex 39A in Florida, just under 48 minutes away from launch. | ||
| We've conducted several weather briefings leading up to this moment, starting with one at T minus 48 hours a couple of days ago, proceeding into the most recent weather briefing a couple of hours ago. | ||
| All of the weather continuing to look good, as Jesse mentioned. | ||
| The one item they're currently tracking for weather, it would be on the abort corridor, but again, that looks pretty good at this moment. | ||
| Again, our teams will be staffed around the clock in mission control to monitor Dragon, not just today, but through the entire mission from liftoff to crew 10's arrival at the space station and all the way through splashdown when the astronauts return. | ||
| Coming up in about two minutes, we should hear that launch director briefing around the T minus 45 minute mark. | ||
| And then after that, we should hopefully have a decision on the hydraulic system, whether we are go or not, and if that's been resolved. | ||
| And then after that, we will see that crew access arm stow to begin around the T-43 minute mark. | ||
| And as you mentioned, Ana, all the rest of the systems are looking really good for T-0. | ||
| We are just working this one issue is a groundside issue. | ||
| But the vehicle is healthy, the crew is healthy. | ||
| They're currently strapped into their seats inside of Dragon on top of Falcon 9 as we speak right now, patiently waiting for an update. | ||
| And once Crew 10 does get to the International Space Station, they will, of course, have a brief handover period with Crew 9. | ||
| And then after that handover, once weather looks good for a splashdown, Crew 9 will return home shortly, bringing the end to their mission. | ||
| So it's a busy time as we complete these crew rotation transitions at the International Space Station. | ||
| Now just under T minus 46 minutes, so we should be coming up on that launch director briefing here shortly. | ||
| Continuing to see a live look at the launch pad, launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. | ||
| You can see the clear skies all around. | ||
| Dragon, LD on countdown one. | ||
| LD, Dragon, go ahead. | ||
| Hey, for awareness, the team needs a couple more minutes here wrapping up this hydraulics issue. | ||
| We'll get back to you in about another four minutes or so on the answer. | ||
| Daddy, cappy, thanks. | ||
| And a quick update there. | ||
| Sounds like around the T-minus 41-minute mark will get an update on that hydraulic issue that the teams have been working. | ||
| These views are great. | ||
| Like Daryl said, we might have a nice twilight launch over there in Florida. | ||
| So if anybody is in Florida and able to go outside during T-Zero for liftoff, you might get a really cool view of the launch tonight. | ||
| And again, that hydraulics issue that's been mentioned several times here now, the only issue being tracks. | ||
| It's related to the hydraulics on a clamp arm. | ||
| And those clamp arms are located on the transporter erector around the second stage of Falcon 9. | ||
| Dragon SpaceX, LD on Countdown 1 at this time. | ||
| We are standing down from today to further address hydraulic release data. | ||
| And launch control is going to pause the clock. | ||
| Space X Dragon, we copy all. | ||
| Space flight is tough, humans are tougher. | ||
| We'll be ready with the equipment as yeah, sorry about the unfortunate result today, but we'll get you back up here and there soon. | ||
| Dragon, copy, go. | ||
| Dragon SpaceX, you are 5.100, launch scrub. | ||
| SpaceX Dragon 5.100, launch scrub and work. | ||
| And we did just get that update. | ||
| Unfortunately, we are scrubbing for today's launch. | ||
| Unfortunately, due to the hydraulic ground issue that the teams have been working, this will allow the teams to continue to troubleshoot and hopefully fix this issue for the next attempt that we'll have for crew 10. | ||
| Yeah, and there's several other attempts this week. | ||
| We'll see where we end up, but there's another opportunity about 24 hours from now that they could potentially take if that issue is addressed. | ||
| So from here, the crew and the team will have to begin egress steps to get the crew out of Dragon and off the launch pad and back to their quarantine facility in Florida where they'll just get a little bit more time with their families. | ||
| Yeah, and the good part is we have not started loading propellants, so we don't need to offload any propellants. | ||
| The vehicle is safe. | ||
| We'll be in section 3 of 5 Decimal 100. | ||
| We'll be there. | ||
| I expect that you should be standing by in step 3 decimal 2. | ||
| And SpaceX threaded. | ||
| Kathy, we are complete through 3D2, and we can give you 3 Decimal 3 that we are ready for suit rotation. | ||
| SpaceX copies, crew report ready for suit rotation and 3 decimal 3. | ||
| We'll report when we step into those ops. | ||
| Just some comms between the core and crew 10. | ||
| They are preparing for egress. | ||
| You are going to hear some procedures being called out as they work through that egress procedure. | ||
| And like we were saying, the crew is safe. | ||
| The vehicle is safe. | ||
| It was a ground side issue that they've been working, that the teams have been working. | ||
| And so what we'll see coming up is the seats will rotate. | ||
| We did have the closeout team already leave the pad. | ||
| They're going to come back and help the crew egress the Dragon vehicle. | ||
| And there on your screen, you can see a live look at the crew and Dragon Endurance working through those steps. | ||
| Leading up to the scrub today, they did go through lots of activities, obviously making it all the way through crew ingress, which happened around 4:58 p.m. Eastern earlier today. | ||
| They then completed all of the suit leak checks, closed the hole. | ||
| For crew awareness, proceeding into scrub site safing. | ||
| Expect some venting from the vehicle ACS system. | ||
| I'm continuing to hear that calm between the crew operations research engineer from SpaceX and crew 10 aboard the Dragon Endurance. | ||
| With that, we'll go ahead and turn it back over to Darrell at NASA's Kennedy Space Center for some additional information. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Thank you very much, Jessica and Anna, back here at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. | ||
| Unfortunately, we're not going today, Jessica. | ||
| There was an issue with the hydraulic system on the ground side out at Launch Complex 39A. | ||
| This was an issue that involved one of the clamp arms on the Transporter Rector. | ||
| This is a ground issue. | ||
| Everything was fine with the rocket and the spacecraft itself. | ||
| This was an issue that SpaceX first made the crew aware of at T-4 hours. | ||
| They were working it, gathering data, but continuing with the countdown in hopes that they were able to have enough data to resolve the issue or get comfortable with some flight rationale. | ||
| They were unable to get to that point, but I was listening in on the net, and they were definitely working this issue as thoroughly as you would expect from the teams at SpaceX and NASA, talking about all the information, previous launches, taking into factors data from even the test fire. | ||
| But in the end, they were unable to get to that point where they were comfortable launching. | ||
| So we stand down for today and we look for another opportunity. | ||
| Though at this point, we know that there are two opportunities coming up on Thursday and Friday, but it has yet to be seen whether or not the teams will take that opportunity. | ||
| They first must resolve the issue or get enough data in order to understand it. | ||
| And then at that point, they can proceed with an opportunity. | ||
| But just to make the audience aware of the opportunities that remain, on Thursday, we have a launch opportunity at 7.26 p.m. Eastern Time. | ||
| 7.26 p.m. Eastern Time, there is another launch opportunity for a 24-hour turnaround. | ||
| And then on Friday, as you know, Jessica, we move generally about 20 or so minutes back each day in order to rendezvous with the International Space Station. | ||
| We have a launch opportunity on Friday as well at 7.03 p.m. Eastern Time. | ||
| As you can see on your screen, the crew, Crew 10, is getting ready to egress the spacecraft Endurance. | ||
| This is where they will go ahead and get out of the spacecraft. | ||
| They're in fact talking about that now as they are motioning which crew members will be going through. | ||
| From here, as you heard mentioned by the commentators in Hawthorne, they will make their way down the launch tower into their vehicles, which are waiting them, along with the Crowzout crew, which will help them go back to astronaut crew quarters. | ||
| For astronauts, though, Jessica, this is certainly something that is really part of the business. | ||
| Yeah, absolutely. | ||
| We talked about it earlier, and flexibility is really the key to everything that we do as astronauts. | ||
| We know that the plan is always changing. | ||
| And launch scrubs are definitely a reality that we have seen happen over and over again here in the Space Coast, way back in the shuttle era, of course, happened frequently too, given maybe a technical issue, maybe a violation of the range, as we talked about with a random boat being in the area. | ||
| Maybe it was a weather violation or even any of the contingency sites along the corridor as well. | ||
| So lots of different reasons to abort. | ||
| It does, you know, it just, we're ready for this. | ||
| This is what we train for. | ||
| We know that at the end of the day, you may be lifting off, you may not be. | ||
| Definitely a bummer for everyone involved. | ||
| But we will just, again, do as we're trained and get ready for that next opportunity. | ||
| It reminds me a little bit of an interview that Anne gave fairly recently about the mission, and she was talking about the extensive experience that her crew has in regard to aviation. | ||
| We talked about that several times in this broadcast. | ||
| They have four professional pilots, two military pilots, two commercial pilots. | ||
| And one of the things that Anne often talks about is how important it is as an operator, as a test pilot, to be humble because your equipment will always fail in ways that you don't predict. | ||
| And I think that's something that we saw here today. | ||
| You know, there were other issues, technical issues that were being worked and tracked before this mission, as are all before every mission. | ||
| We're always wondering what's going to happen with the weather here, which can be pretty interesting and unpredictable here on the Florida coast. | ||
| But this was probably, this was something I don't think that anyone was tracking at all. | ||
| And Ann and I even spoke last night. | ||
| It just seems like everything's going too smoothly. | ||
| I think we mentioned that this morning as well. | ||
| And maybe we shouldn't have said that out loud because sure enough, there's always something that you don't expect. | ||
| So I'm sure Ann's reminding her crew right now, hey, be humble. | ||
| We know that today we weren't ready to launch. | ||
| And the answer is that we will launch when we know we're ready and safe. | ||
| And that's, of course, the only solution when you're launching humans into space. | ||
| And a hint that the crew is taking it well, as you said, that we just saw moments ago. | ||
| Kareel Preskoff appeared to use his tablet to take a selfie to the crew. | ||
| So you feel like they're doing okay and certainly understand what is happening right now. | ||
| They were aware throughout the countdown that this could be a possibility, but they get yet another practice run in at getting out to the launch pad and getting into their seats and preparing to go. | ||
| That's right. | ||
| We're listening in as SpaceX continues to go through their scrub procedures. | ||
| Again, another highly detailed list of procedures to properly go about the scrub of a spacecraft launch. | ||
| Coming up next is our crew egress. | ||
| The crew has loosened up their seatbelts. | ||
| There will be some additional tank venting here as we get back down to nominal tank pressures. | ||
| Thank you, Papi. | ||
| From your time in the astronaut corps, what are some stories that you've heard from astronauts that have, you know, spent time waiting for the next opportunity? | ||
| Well, there's certainly a lot of stories. | ||
| I mean, there were some shuttle missions that scrubbed numerous times. | ||
| I mean, over and over again, you have different launch windows for different vehicles, too. | ||
| Sometimes it's an instantaneous window. | ||
| Sometimes you have a prolonged period. | ||
| So maybe you might be able to resolve a problem in time. | ||
| But, you know, in some ways, it could actually make the crew a little bit more relaxed because they've already done all of their final preparation things. | ||
| All of those, like, all that last-minute work, the last-minute email, the last-minute message that you wanted to send a friend, they have all of that out of the way. | ||
| And hopefully, that will give them a chance tomorrow to really just be able to relax and appreciate it and maybe just think a little bit more, philosophize a little bit more, you know, be ready for that next attempt without all of those little annoying must-do task list type things. | ||
| So we'll try to put a positive light on it and think about how maybe for their psychological state and getting ready for the next opportunity, I would actually make things a little bit more relaxing and a little bit more routine. | ||
| Like you said, they've gone through it all. | ||
| Of course, they had gone through most of those, pretty much all of those steps except for the propellant loading in the dry dress previously, so they'd been through it at least once. | ||
| But, you know, when you're not training for the real deal, it always feels a little bit different. | ||
| So I think they'll be even more psychologically, mentally prepared for the next opportunity that they'll have, whether that's tomorrow or a subsequent day. | ||
| If you're just joining us, you're watching launch coverage of NASA and SpaceX's Crew 10 mission that was scrubbed today at 7.06 p.m. Eastern Time, T-43 minutes. | ||
| A scrub was called by NASA and SpaceX due to an issue with the hydraulic system that controls a clamp arm that holds the rocket to the launch tower. | ||
| And there you see crew 10, Our crew from left to right, Crew Peskoff, Nicole Lairs, and McLean, and Takuya Onishi. | ||
| Just spending some time chatting and talking. | ||
| Of course, you know they're disappointed that they didn't get to go today. | ||
| The weather was perfect. | ||
| It certainly did its part. | ||
| I had just heard an update prior to the scrub being called, where the launch weather officer came over the net and said, We're clear, blue, and 22. | ||
| A phrase that means, you know, clear skies, blue skies, beautiful weather, and you can see for 22 miles. | ||
| And you literally can. | ||
| That is the visibility today. | ||
| It was setting up to be a perfect, not only launch opportunity, but also a launch viewing opportunity. | ||
| But as is often happens in the business, everything, everything needs to be just right. | ||
| And so the launch was scrubbed for today, and they will look for an opportunity in the future after they discuss the issue that they had with the hydraulics on the ground system. | ||
| The rocket was good to go. | ||
| The spacecraft was good to go. | ||
| But something with the ground equipment and the hydraulic system is what's keeping us on the ground for today. | ||
| As we look around, just having passed through sunset, I believe we had a sunset. | ||
| Are we there yet? | ||
| No, we're close, almost sunset, as we orbit the launch tower there. | ||
| In the foreground, a future Starship launch tower that you can see there, marked by its chopstick arms at the bottom. | ||
| In the background, you can see Launch Complex 39A in the tower, where the Falcon 9 rocket and spacecraft with our crew are still sitting inside, awaiting to be egressed from the capsule. | ||
| And way off in the distance, the vehicle assembly building. | ||
| You know, it's good food for thought here as I contemplate what I would do in this situation and think about a potential future spaceflight. | ||
| I think it's probably a good idea to have some contingency plans, personal ones, right, about what's going to be different and what you're going to do over those next 24 hours or however long it will be. | ||
| I didn't actually speak to Ann about that. | ||
| I wonder if she and her crew had anything in mind, you know, anything planned, because the way things usually work, if you have a plan, then you won't need to use it. | ||
| But if you don't have a plan, then we may be in the case that we're in today. | ||
| So I'll have to talk to her and find out if they had anything planned and what they decided to do to make use of that interim. | ||
| I can see some astronauts possibly thinking that might be bad luck if you make a plan for a scrub. | ||
| You never know. | ||
| I mean, if you have a plan, then you won't have to use it. | ||
| There you go. | ||
| It's good to plan. | ||
| It's also good for the astronauts to have a little downtime as well. | ||
| Launch and then the work that happens on the International Space Station, as I've heard it told, is very intense at times. | ||
| Yeah, the training period, especially in the few months before launch, is pretty intense. | ||
| There's a lot of international travel as well, so you're pretty much always jet lagged. | ||
| And it's pretty intense. | ||
| You know, I think for a lot of the training that we do as astronauts, we talked about for these space station missions. | ||
| We're typically training a year and a half to two years in advance. | ||
| In the beginning, it's usually not as engaging, not as time-consuming, not as much travel, but really things get progressively busier, unfortunately, even though you'd personally want it the other way around. | ||
| You know, if you think about it, everybody wants to have their training and their exposure as close to the flight as possible. | ||
| So those final months do get quite busy. | ||
| For Anne's crew, there was sort of an interesting lead up. | ||
| You know, they had their very, very busy time period since, of course, originally they were supposed to launch in February, and they were really pretty exhausted. | ||
| You know, they had a lot of travel, a lot of things going on, but then suddenly they had this delay and they were waiting, and then they had this kind of built-in rest period, kind of similar to what we're talking about with a scrub, where I think it actually was good for their crew because they had enough downtime to really recover. | ||
| I mean, we always, as astronauts, want to be launching a well-rested crew, a well-mentally prepared crew to get to the very busy lifestyle that we have on board the space station and just all the psychology that's involved with leaving your family and friends back home too. | ||
| So I think it was nice Ann's crew had that. | ||
| And again, maybe they'll have that now with the scrub, a little bit of extra time together to kind of contemplate and prepare for their mission. | ||
| That delay that you mentioned from February to March, of course, brought about by the decision to switch capsules from a brand new SpaceX capsule to the Dragon Endurance, a reliable one with three previous crew missions under its belt: Crew 3, Crew 5, and Crew 7. | ||
| When they made that switch, though, they needed to do some more data analysis on spacecraft in short order, and it takes time because of the amount of data that the commercial crew program has to go over in order to make sure that everything is right with the spacecraft before loading up the astronauts on it. | ||
| Oh, it's a nice view of the moon you can see behind the launch towers there as well. | ||
| See it. | ||
| We're pretty close to a full moon. | ||
| We've got sunset in just a few minutes. | ||
| Dragon SpaceX, just an update. | ||
| The close-out team is waiting. | ||
| They've arrived at the pad, but is waiting for a go to enter the pad to come get you out of the vehicle. | ||
| But I'll give you updates as they're proceeding to the base of the tower. | ||
| SpaceX Dragon cafe, thank you. | ||
| You heard that update there from SpaceX to the crew inside the Endurance spacecraft. | ||
| And for crew owners, there's going to be some loud venting from the base of the rocket. | ||
| Of course, they have to wait before the closeout crew can ascend the launch tower there because everything needs to be safed first before you allow people to go into the launch area. | ||
| So these are standard precautions that are taken before the closeout crew goes in. | ||
| Props to our Kennedy Space Center flight operations team, though, for these beautiful images that they have been bringing us throughout today. | ||
| Going around the launch complex, we're able to see for 20 miles off in the distance, and we've had some pretty spectacular views. | ||
| All right, we're going to send it out now to Hawthorne, California, and our commentators there with an update on the scrub. | ||
| Thanks, Daryl. | ||
| Not what we were expecting today, but the good news is that the vehicle, the crew are all healthy, and this is standard procedure, right? | ||
| We're hearing some comms. | ||
| We heard the comms that the closeout team is going to make their way back to on the crew access arm to the white room and help the crew egress the vehicle. | ||
| But they've done this before. | ||
| They did this through dry dress rehearsal already when they had to go through the entire process, get into the seats, get strapped in, and then they unbuckled and egressed the Dragon spacecraft already. | ||
| So this is just almost like another rehearsal for them. | ||
| And again, we didn't load propellant, so that does make the egress a little bit easier today. | ||
| Yeah, and you can see crew 10 there on your screen. | ||
| They look pretty happy, all smiles on their faces. | ||
| Taking some selfies, it looks like, or some photos with their pads there. | ||
| Yeah, so I guess killing the time a little bit as they wait to egress or exit the spacecrafts and again go back to their quarantine facility where they've been for the last about a week now. | ||
| I think they arrived on March 7th to Florida. | ||
| So the process takes a little bit. | ||
| There's lots of people and moving parts involved to get the crew out of the capsule, get everything safe, and then drive back and get back to their location. | ||
| Again, we'll continue to stand by and wait and see when we might be able to have our next launch opportunity. | ||
| There's several opportunities available this week. | ||
| Again, we had that scrub due to a hydraulic ground issue with the clamp arm on the transporter erector. | ||
| So the teams will continue to look into that, do some more data and analysis and see if they can figure out exactly what was going on with that issue. | ||
| We'll continue to share more about those next launch opportunities once they're available. | ||
| We'll, on the NASA side, provide updates about the launch on our mission blog on nasa.gov as well as on our social media accounts on the commercial crew program side. | ||
| Again, this mission, oh, and there on your screen, you can see the cars that will transport the crew back after they egress have arrived to the pad. | ||
| Teams are standing by there. | ||
| And we do have the closeout team waiting for the elevator that will take them all the way up to that crew access arm. | ||
| Again, that's the same team that helped them ingress into the vehicle. | ||
| It'll be the same team to help them egress. | ||
| And there you can see them making their way up. | ||
| And they did call the scrub right before that crew access arm normally would have swung out of the way. | ||
| So we didn't have to wait for that to swing back. | ||
| So it does speed up the process a little bit. | ||
| And that was, I think, very intentional to make a decision at that point. | ||
| Yeah, exactly. | ||
| We have a lot of checkpoints through the countdown, all purposefully to make sure that we are making sure that every step of the process we are good before we proceed. | ||
| And again, just like Ana was saying, this is exactly why we do that. | ||
| We were able to make this call prior to propellant loading, prior to removing the crew access arm, making the steps to almost go backwards a little bit easier and a little bit safer. | ||
| We are doing, you could see on your screen, just making sure that we are good to open that hatch for Dragon. | ||
| And again, Crew 10 is the 10th rotational mission for SpaceX carrying crew to the International Space Station. | ||
| Their crew currently inside Dragon that will egress soon is comprised of two NASA astronauts, so NASA astronaut Ann McLean and Nicole Ayers, as well as a JAXA astronaut, Takuya Onishi, and a Ross Cosmos cosmonaut, Kirill Peskov. | ||
| And then once we do have a new launch date and a launch time, and we get the crew off the pad and into orbit, they will spend, or they will have a long-duration mission at the International Space Station conducting science and research activities. | ||
| It's really great to see the crew in good spirits. | ||
| You know, they train for this and spend a lot of hours working through each one of these procedures. | ||
| And you can see the closeout team making their way across the crew access arm there over to the white room. | ||
| But yeah, this is all part of procedure. | ||
| And it's really great to see the crew just in good spirits despite, you know, unfortunately not being able to launch today, but we will have some other opportunities. | ||
| And again, we will not launch unless we know that we can launch safely and reliably. | ||
| And this is exactly why we do all of these checks throughout the countdown. | ||
| And really, everything has to go right for a launch to be successful. | ||
| So we want to take the time and make sure we understand any issues that arise. | ||
| Along with all of the engineering systems on the rocket and Dragon, we also have to look out for things like weather to make sure we're safe to fly and launch into orbit. | ||
| So again, the teams will continue discussing the hydraulics issue, continue looking at the weather for the next few days and see when our next launch opportunity may be. | ||
| You're continuing to see a live look inside the Dragon Endurance. | ||
| And again, this was going to be the fourth flight of that spacecraft. | ||
| It previously flew on Crew 3, Crew 5, and Crew 7. | ||
| Live look, they are at the launch pad, Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the sun looks like it's pretty much fully set at this point. | ||
| And there are teams continuing to go down the crew access arm, safing the hatch and getting ready to open it so that they can begin the egress or exit operations for the crew and get them out one by one. | ||
| Crew 10 again there on your screen, patiently waiting for that hatch to open. | ||
| Once that hatch opens, they'll egress one crew member at a time. | ||
| And again, they still need to follow, ensuring that we are not bringing any FOD in or into the crew, into the Dragon spacecraft and the crew arm itself. | ||
| And so you saw the closeouts team in those closeout suits. | ||
| The close-out team is in the white room. | ||
| They're doing final preparations for hatch opening, expected in just a few minutes from now. | ||
| SpaceX, Director Jeffy. | ||
| That was the Corps speaking with the crew, just providing an update. | ||
| They are inside of Dragon, so they can't see outside from the seats that they're in. | ||
| So the Corps is just letting them know that the closeout team is inside of the crew access arm, inside of the White Room, and preparing to open that hatch shortly. | ||
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