Hurricane Ian Postpones Launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 Mission; New Target Date on Oct. 4

Among the most direct household implications of Hurricane Ian's landfall in Florida would be power disruptions, and the state's main energy firms are prepared for a massive rise in outages during the week, according to the AccuWeather report.

Hurricane Ian also affected the supposed launch of the Crew-5 Mission. NASA and SpaceX intend to launch no earlier than 12:23 PM Tuesday, Oct. 4, at 8 AM EDT. The new launch date of the Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station has a backup option on Wednesday, Oct. 5, as per the space agency's official statement, Sept. 27, 2022.

Mission scientists will keep an eye on Hurricane Ian's effects on the Space Coast and NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the launch date may be modified if needed. More details on the planned timetable, including crew movement from NASA's Johnson Space Center to Kennedy Space Center, will be released in the following days. As per current plans, the team will arrive no sooner than Friday, Sept 30. NASA and SpaceX prioritize the crew's safety, ground operations, and hardware added to the statement.

"Our largest conversation today was definitely about weather and time," said NASA assistant administrator for space operations Kathy Lueders. According to Space News, "the team is still working towards the Oct. 3 launch time frame, but we also recognize we have to work through weather circumstances here at KSC," Lueders added.

Crew-5 Mission Initial Plan and Delays

The Crew-5 Mission deployment had been slated for early September but was rescheduled when the mission's new Falcon 9 rocket was damaged while transported from SpaceX's Hawthorne, California, facility to its McGregor, Texas, testing site. The booster collided with a highway bridge, necessitating the replacement of the interstage segment at the top of the booster, along with avionics and a grid fin.

NASA astronauts Nicole Aunapu Mann and Josh Cassada, Japan's Koichi Wakata, and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) for a five-month visit. This will be the first time a cosmonaut has ridden to the orbiting lab in a private American spaceship.

On the other hand, Crew-4, SpaceX's most recent mission, remains atop the ISS but is set to return soon. Crew-4's departure time depends on Crew-5's launch date; NASA and SpaceX want the two operations to overlap for five days on the station, based on a NASA report.

(Photo: SpaceX)
The Dragon Endurance spacecraft for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission arrives at the hangar at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A in Florida on Sept. 23, 2022. The capsule arrived at the launch complex after making the short journey from its nearby processing facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

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NASA's SpaceX Overlapping Missions of Crew-4 and Crew-5

The Crew-5 astronauts will travel to the space station for six-month science and technological study missions. After a quick handover aboard the space station with Crew-5, NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts will be returned.

The agency's Crew-4 mission will undock from the space station on the same day as the Crew-5 launch date, allowing for a five-day direct handover between crews.

NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada will act as mission commanders and pilots for the Crew-5 expedition, along with JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, who will serve as flight specialists, as reported on NASA's Crew-5 blog.

Hurricane Ian is affecting not only Crew-5. The typhoon prompted NASA to roll its massive Artemis 1 rocket to the moon off KSC's Pad 39B and back to the shelter of the agency's massive Vehicle Assembly Building late yesterday evening (Sept. 26).