A SpaceX crew will have to wait a bit longer to come back home.
NASA had been planning for Crew-4’s Dragon capsule, named Freedom, to undock on Thursday (Oct. 13) to deliver four astronauts home from a six-month stay at the International Space Station. But shortly before the capsule would have undocked this morning, NASA once again delayed the procedure, along with Dragon’s expected splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean within reach of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, due to weather concerns.
Now NASA is targeting Friday at 11:35 a.m. EDT (1535 GMT) for the undocking, having now waved off opportunities on Wednesday (Oct. 12) and Thursday (Oct. 13) due to weather, officials said on NASA Television Thursday.
Related: Amazing photos of SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission
The four astronauts of Crew-4 will remain on the space station until the next undocking opportunity, spending a few extra hours at the orbiting laboratory alongside seven recent arrivals set to spend a few months inside the facility.
NASA evaluates landing site conditions like wave height, winds and other factors to ensure splashdowns occur in safe conditions, the agency has said.
Crew-4 launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on April 27 and arrived at the ISS the same day. The mission comprises the European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and NASA astronauts Robert Hines, Kjell Lindgren and Jessica Watkins.
Crew-4 is the fourth contracted astronaut mission that SpaceX has flown to the orbiting complex for NASA. It’s one of two SpaceX astronaut flights currently at the ISS; Crew-5 arrived on Oct. 6 for a five-month stay.
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