Hurricane Would possibly Delay NASA Astronauts Return Slated For August 2

Washington:

The primary US astronauts to achieve the Worldwide House Station on an American spacecraft in practically a decade may not come house this weekend as scheduled due to Hurricane Isaias, NASA mentioned Friday.

Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley blasted off from Cape Canaveral on Could 30 on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon, and are purported to splash down off the coast of Florida on Sunday afternoon.

For now, undocking stays scheduled for roughly 7:34 pm (2334 GMT) Saturday, and splashdown at 2:42 pm  (1842 GMT) on Sunday. 

However NASA mentioned it was retaining a watchful eye on Hurricane Isaias — a class one storm that battered the Bahamas Friday and was churning towards Florida — and would make a last name about six hours previous to undocking.

“We do not management the climate, and we all know we are able to keep up right here longer — there’s extra chow, and I do know the house station program has extra work that we are able to do,” Behnken informed reporters in a press name.

The potential splashdown websites are within the Gulf of Mexico and alongside Florida’s Atlantic coast.

The mission marked the primary time a crewed spaceship launched into orbit from American soil since 2011 when the House Shuttle program ended.

It was additionally the primary time a personal firm has flown to the ISS carrying astronauts.

The US has paid SpaceX and aerospace large Boeing a complete of about $7 billion for his or her “house taxi” contracts.

However Boeing’s program has floundered badly after a failed check run late final yr, which left SpaceX, an organization based solely in 2002, as clear frontrunner.

For the previous 9 years, American astronauts traveled solely on Russian rockets Soyuz rockets, for a worth of round $80 million per seat.

The crewmates added they have been wanting ahead to going house after two months, if the return journey went forward Sunday as deliberate.

“My son is six years outdated and I can inform from the movies that I get and from speaking to him on the telephone that he is modified rather a lot,” mentioned Behnken.

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