The launch of the next mission for SpaceX astronauts has been confirmed. The company and NASA conducted a Readiness to Flight Review (FRR) today (August 21) for Crew-7, which will send four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule. All went well during the nearly seven-hour FRR, keeping the Crew-7 on target to fly aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida this week.

“Once the review is complete, everyone chose ‘go,’ and we’re launching at 3:49 a.m. ET on Friday,” said Ken Bowersox, deputy director of NASA’s Space Operations Administration, during the broadcast. – FRR press conference this afternoon.

If Crew-7 launches in time, it will arrive at the ISS around 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT) on Saturday, August 26. When it’s time to approach and dock, you can watch it here on Space.com.

NASA and SpaceX said at a press conference today that the Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon – a capsule called Endurance and currently on a two-crew trip to the ISS – are in good shape. But if there is a technical issue or if the weather in Florida doesn’t cooperate on Friday (it’s certainly possible), backup launch opportunities will be available both Saturday and Sunday (August 27).

Crew-7 is a purely international mission that transports four astronauts from four different countries to an orbiting laboratory. These crew members are: NASA’s Endurance’s commander, Jasmine Mogbeli; Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency, who will use the capsule; Kostiantyn Borisov of the Russian space agency Roskosmos and Satoshi Furukawa of Japan will be mission experts.

The Crew-7 quartet arrived at KSC on Sunday to begin final preparations for the launch. Falcon 9 and Endurance were deployed on KSC Pad 39A from Sunday, August 20 through Monday. Crew-7 astronauts will replace the four people who flew to the ISS on SpaceX’s Crew-6 mission in March. NASA officials said today that Crew-6 will return to Earth about five days after Crew-7 arrives at the orbiting laboratory, subject to favorable weather conditions at the planned landing site.

While the resilience is in good shape, there were some issues the NASA and SpaceX teams would discuss during today’s FRR, as well as the analysis and investigations that led up to it. For example, technicians noticed corrosion on some valves on several other Dragon capsules, including the one that went on a robotic resupply mission to the ISS in June. The corrosion is caused by acid, which is formed when oxidizing vapors mix with moisture, Steve Stich, director of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said at a press conference on Monday.

Stich said Crew-7 crews replaced some of the valves on the Endurance and “repaired them for flight.” “And we have a good road ahead and a good reason for the other valves in the car.” Source