Storm Surge
Three astronauts and one cosmonaut were scheduled to head home this week on board a SpaceX spacecraft.
But thanks to the dangerous mega storm currently brewing in the Atlantic, they are stuck on board the International Space Station a little while longer.
NASA has announced that the crew for its latest return mission won’t be able to leave until at least October 13. It’s the second time the agency has had to scrub the date due to the rapidly-approaching Hurricane Milton.
“NASA and SpaceX now are targeting no earlier than 3:05 am EDT Sunday, Oct. 13, for the undocking of the Crew-8 mission from the International Space Station due to weather conditions and potential impacts from Hurricane Milton across the Florida peninsula,” an agency statement reads.
Though Tampa is prepping for the worst of the Category 4 storm, NASA’s Kennedy Space Station launch center is located only about 130 miles away in Cape Canaveral, which will certainly feel the brunt of Milton as well.
Beyond the astronauts delayed by Milton, NASA and SpaceX’s Europa Clipper mission to Neptune’s mysterious moon was also pushed back due to the storm. It was supposed to launch on Thursday — and its launch window is rapidly closing.
Close Quarters
While their return delay is not all that long compared to the astronauts who hitched a ride on Boeing’s cursed Starliner in June only to be stuck there until at least February, the Crew-8 mission members have been on board the ISS since March.
Things are pretty crowded on board the space station. There are currently 11 people on board the orbital lab right now: the two stranded Starliner astronauts, the four-person Crew-8 team, two cosmonauts and one astronaut that hitched a ride on a Russian Soyuz rocket, and two new arrivals from SpaceX’s Crew-9.
It’s been an awkward year for astronauts traveling to and from the space station. From technical issues-prone spacecraft to massive hurricanes, it’s never been harder to stick to a launch schedule.
