Axiom-1 Return Trip to Begin April 24 Instead

Originally scheduled to launch to the International Space Station atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster on Saturday, April 23, 2022, NASA’s Crew-4 mission has been delayed.

Although the booster is poised on Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center with its Flight Readiness Firing successfully completed, and a brand new Dragon spacecraft atop, the Falcon 9 booster will have to wait a few days before lofting astronauts Jessica Watkins, Samantha Cristoforetti, Bob Hines, and Kjell Lindgren into orbit. 

This delay was not caused by a technical or mechanical issue, but is instead simply a weather issue. However, it is not an issue of weather at the launch site.

The issue is a result of an orbital traffic jam of sorts. 

Currently aboard the ISS is the crew Axiom Space’s first private astronaut mission, which has been dubbed “Ax-1.” Their Dragon spacecraft, the Endeavour, was launched on April 8 and arrived at the ISS the following day. The crew had been scheduled to depart the ISS on April 19, and splash down off the Florida coast on April 20. Very poor weather in the landing zone caused mission officials to scrub their departure. The soonest that the crew could be brought down is now set at April 24.

Thus, the problem became that with the Crew-3 Dragon docked to the ISS the Endeavour is occupying the docking port needed for the Dragon spacecraft Freedom which Crew-4. So, the launch of that spacecraft is now on hold until the Endeavour departs the station and returns to Earth.

Meanwhile the Ax-1 crew have some extended time to stay in space while the crew of the Freedom spacecraft are looking at a launch date no earlier than April 26. NASA states that back-up launch dates for the Crew-4 mission are April 27 and 28.

It is interesting that we are in a time when SpaceX launch vehicles and spacecraft are launching with such an exciting frequency and there is a sort of traffic jam at the ISS.

FMI: www.nasa.gov