Axiom Space and SpaceX are set to kick off a busy year for human spaceflight, but SpaceX announced it was delaying its Space Coast launch attempt until at least Thursday.
The commercial Ax-3 mission is now set to lift off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket topped with the Crew Dragon Freedom making its third ever flight to space targeting liftoff at 4:49 p.m. Thursday with a backup option on Saturday at 4 p.m.
“The additional time allows teams to complete pre-launch checkouts and data analysis on the vehicle,” SpaceX posted in an update on X. Some changes SpaceX had to enable before the launch attempt this week had pushed its timeline to clear the vehicle and the launch readiness review was not completed until Wednesday morning.
Space Launch Delta 45 weather squadron still forecasts a 90% chance for good conditions with the one-day delay.
One of the issues being checked was what SpaceX referred to as “energy modulators” in the Dragon parachute system, which are basically straps that connect the parachute bag to the parachute door. On those folded straps are stitches designed to break as the main parachute to the Dragon deploys that act as shock absorbers, said SpaceX’s senior director for its human spaceflight program.
SpaceX saw that on the return flight and landing of the cargo Dragon on the CRS-29 mission last month, there was nonoptimal stress reduction when the parachutes deployed, and they suspect the straps were twisted on install. So for Ax-3, SpaceX teams went in an
On board are former NASA astronaut and Axiom chief astronaut Michael López-Alegría acting as mission commander leading three European customers: Italian Air Force Col. Walter Villadei, who will act as pilot, and mission specialists Alper Gezeravcı of Turkey.