April 9, 2022: International Attach Region Configuration. Six spaceships are parked at the distance procedure at the side of the SpaceX Dragons Persistence and Endeavour; the Northrop Grumman Cygnus space freighter; and Russia’s Soyuz MS-21 crew ship and the Progress 79 and 80 resupply ships. Credit ranking: NASA
The constructed-in NASA, Axiom Attach, and SpaceX teams bear agreed on a thought for the Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) crew to undock from the International Attach Region at 8: 35 p.m. EDT Saturday, April 23, for a splashdown off the jog of Florida about 1: 46 p.m. Sunday, April 24. The decision change into made in step with the top probably weather for splashdown of the critical internal most astronaut mission to focus on over with the International Attach Region and the return trajectory required to discontinuance the crew and the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft support to Earth safely.
Beforehand, after an earlier postponement, the four-member internal most astronaut crew had been centered to undock at about 10 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, to open up the breeze support to Earth, but that undocking change into waved-off attributable to injurious weather prerequisites for return.
NASA will present dwell coverage of departure actions starting at 6: 15 p.m. Saturday, April 23, with hatch closure centered for six: 30 p.m. Coverage will resume at 8: 15 p.m. for the undocking. Teams will continue to visual display unit the weather at the splashdown web sites sooner than undocking to make certain prerequisites are acceptable for a stable recovery of the Ax-1 astronauts and Dragon spacecraft.
NASA and Axiom mission planning ready for the chance of beyond fashioned time on the distance procedure for the internal most astronauts, and there are sufficient provisions for all 11 crew contributors aboard. The Axiom Ax-1 crew is mute accomplishing beforehand deliberate mission operations. The Ax-1 crew and the Dragon spaceship dwell wholesome.
The SpaceX Dragon Endeavour crew ship is pictured docked to the Harmony module’s space-going thru worldwide docking adapter. Endeavour carried four Axiom Mission 1 astronauts, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Pilot Larry Connor, and Mission Experts Eytan Stibbe and Mark Pathy, to the International Attach Region for several days of learn, education, and industrial actions. Credit ranking: NASA
The departure of Dragon Endeavour from the distance procedure will obvious the docking port for the arrival of Dragon Freedom and NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts. The earliest probably beginning alternative for the Crew-4 mission is 4: 15 a.m. Tuesday, April 26, with additional alternatives Wednesday, April 27, and Thursday, April 28. These beginning alternatives are present process a more detailed program review to make certain they align with constructed-in operational timelines. The teams are making an are trying to present a two-day hole after Ax-1 return for data opinions from splashdown and to prepare for the Crew-4 beginning, at the side of the staging of recovery sources.
The Crew-4 astronauts spent last night at the Kennedy Attach Heart in Florida rehearsing the countdown to their beginning within the SpaceX Dragon Freedom, the company’s most modern crew ship. Overnight, Crew-4 Commander Kjell Lindgren, Pilot Robert Hines with Mission Experts Jessica Watkins and Samantha Cristoforetti, placed on their stress suits and entered their automobile conducting a worthwhile dry dress rehearsal. The Falcon 9 rocket, with the Freedom perched atop, stands at Originate Advanced 39A.
Expedition 67 crewmates Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn, who are also the SpaceX Crew-3 commander and pilot respectively, spent a exiguous bit time on Wednesday with their upcoming departure actions. The pair, along with Kayla Barron of NASA and Matthias Maurer of ESA, will defend up for the arrival of their Crew-4 replacements sooner than returning to Earth a pair of days later within the Dragon Persistence automobile. The four astronauts had a gentle-accountability day on Wednesday scheduling in some housecleaning initiatives.
Over in the Russian segment of the procedure, cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev wrapped up their post-spacewalk actions as of late stowing their instruments and discussing the tour with consultants on the bottom. The duo kicked off a sequence of spacewalks on April 18 to configure the European robotic arm for operations on the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module. Roscosmos Flight Engineer Sergey Korsakov started his day with electronics and communications upkeep sooner than learning future spacecraft and robotic piloting ways in the afternoon.