CAPE CANAVERAL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th October, 2022) NASA is confident that the Dragon spacecraft carrying US and Japanese astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday is safe and ready to fly, Lisa McCollum, deputy manager for the commercial crew Launch Vehicle Systems Office, told Sputnik.
When asked whether it is safe and ready to go, McCollum stated, "Absolutely."
"We're very confident in our vehicle that we're getting ready to fly the Crew 5," McCollum said.
The Crew-5 flight will carry NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, who will serve as mission commander and pilot, respectively, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, who will serve as mission specialists.
The launch is scheduled for noon EDT (16:00 GMT) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Dragon spacecraft, named Endurance, is scheduled to dock to the space station at 4:57 p.m. EDT on Thursday.
The launch was originally set for Monday, but was postponed due to Hurricane Ian.
SpaceX Human Spaceflight Programs senior director Benji Reed told reporters on Monday that NASA and SpaceX currently see nothing that could potentially delay the Crew-5 mission flight to the ISS.
Reed also said they are thankful to NASA, Russia and ESA for a chance to fly astronauts to the International Space Station.
In July, Roscosmos and NASA signed an agreement on integrated flights of cosmonauts and astronauts to the ISS. As part of the agreement, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket with a Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft was launched from Baikonur to the ISS on September 21 carrying a crew including Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin as well as NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio. The only female cosmonaut at Roscosmos, Kikina, will fly to the ISS on the US-made Crew Dragon spacecraft on Wednesday.
