October 13 Update: SpaceX’s Crew-4 Dragon Freedom capsule is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station today at 10:05 a.m. EDT (14:05 GMT) after a day of delay due to weather on Earth. The capsule and its crew of four astronauts will splash down off the coast of Florida at 5:41 p.m. EDT (2141 GMT). Watch it live above.
SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission will lift off from the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday morning (October 13), and you can watch the action live.
Crew-4’s Dragon capsule, named Freedom, is scheduled to lift off from the orbiting lab at 10:05 a.m. EDT (14:05 GMT) Thursday, NASA officials said in a blog post ( opens a new tab) Wednesday (October 13). This is a delay from Wednesday evening due to weather.
You can watch it live here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly through the space agency (opens in a new tab). NASA warns that the departure time is somewhat uncertain.
“Mission teams continue to monitor a cold front moving through Florida with the potential to bring strong winds and wet weather near splash zones along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts,” officials said in a statement. the agency in the blog post. “Mission teams will continue to monitor splashdown and recovery conditions, with another weather review around six hours before undocking.”
You can also check out a variety of other departure-related events on Thursday, as detailed below.
Related: Incredible Photos of SpaceX’s Crew-4 Mission
The action started relatively early on Wednesday. At 10:05 am EDT (14:05 GMT), the four Crew-4 astronauts made some farewell remarks. And one of them, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, the current commander of the ISS, handed over the reins of the orbiting laboratory to Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev during a change of command ceremony at the same time
The disconnect is expected for Thursday at 10:05 am EDT (14:05 GMT) and coverage will likely begin approximately 20 minutes before the event. This is a delay from the decoupling on a Wednesday evening at 19:05 EDT (2305 GMT).
If the undocking goes ahead on schedule, Freedom is expected to leave the Florida coast at 5:41 p.m. EDT (2141 GMT) on Thursday. NASA and SpaceX plan to hold a post-crash press conference today at 19:00 EDT (2300 GMT).
This briefing will feature Steve Stich, NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager; Joel Montalbano, NASA International Space Station Program Director; and a representative from SpaceX.
None of these times are set in stone, however; are dependent on expected good weather in Freedom’s potential splash zones in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean.
“The undocking of the Crew-4 dragon depends on several factors, including spacecraft readiness, recovery team readiness, weather, sea states and other factors,” wrote officials at the NASA in Wednesday’s blog post. “Dragon Freedom remains healthy while currently docked with the space station. Backup undock opportunities are also available on Friday, October 14.”
Crew-4 launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on April 27 and arrived at the ISS that same day. The mission consists of Cristoforetti and NASA astronauts Robert Hines, Kjell Lindgren and Jessica Watkins.
As the name suggests, Crew-4 is the fourth contract astronaut mission that SpaceX has flown to NASA’s orbiting laboratory. It is one of two SpaceX flights currently on the ISS; Crew-5 arrived on October 6 for a five-month stay.
This story was updated at 3:40 PM EDT on Wednesday, October 12 with news about the decoupling delay and updated decoupling opportunities.
Mike Wall is the author of “Over there (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in a new tab). follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in a new tab) or enabled Facebook (opens in a new tab).