Produced by: Tarun Mishra
SpaceX and NASA are preparing for the Crew-9 mission, which is scheduled to launch on August 18. The mission will send astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).
The Crew-9 team includes commander Zena Cardman, pilot Nick Hague, mission specialist Stephanie Wilson, and mission specialist Alexsandr Gorbunov from Roscosmos.
After addressing the issue, the Falcon 9 rocket has resumed uncrewed launches, including missions for SpaceX's Starlink satellites. NASA and SpaceX are ensuring that the vehicle is safe for crewed missions.
The oxygen leak on July 11 was traced to a sensor hardware issue, which SpaceX has since replaced. NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, Steve Stich, expressed confidence in the safety of the mission following these changes.
NASA has been closely monitoring the situation and has participated in the testing of the new sensor hardware. The agency is conducting thorough analyses and certification processes to confirm readiness for the Crew-9 mission.
Crew-9 will be SpaceX's ninth astronaut rotation mission to the ISS under NASA's Commercial Crew Program. This will also mark the 10th crewed flight of the Dragon spacecraft, following the Demo-2 test flight in May 2020.
The upcoming Crew-9 mission indicates a narrow window for Sunita Williams's Boeing Starliner spacecraft to return, with only 16 days remaining before the Crew-9 launch. The Starliner must complete its mission and return to Earth within this timeframe to avoid overlapping with Crew-9's launch schedule.
The current situation presents a challenge for managing docking ports at the ISS. ISS program manager Dana Weigel emphasized that the Starliner needs to be undocked to make space for the Crew-9 mission.