Bad weather forces NASA to delay return of SpaceX Crew-2 mission to November 8

NASA has announced a delay in the return to earth from the International Space Station (ISS) of its 4-member SpaceX Crew-2 mission, which will now begin its journey back home on November 8 (local time).

In a blog post, the US space agency attributed the delay to bad weather, adding that the Crew Dragon spacecraft, which will bring the astronauts back to earth, will begin undocking from the ISS at 2:05pm Eastern Time (ET), and splashdown off the coast of Florida at 10:33pm ET.

At the conclusion of their mission, the Crew-2 astronauts will have completed 199 days at the space station, NASA noted further. The mission was launched on April 23, and arrived at the ISS a day later. The crew comprises NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Thomas Pesquet from the European Space Agency (ESA).

Meanwhile, the launch of Crew-3, which witnessed several postponements during the previous week, remains scheduled for November 10, NASA said. The mission, which comprises four new astronauts who will replace their Crew-2 counterparts at the space station, is targeting a launch no earlier than 9:03pm on Wednesday. The liftoff will take place on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Florida-based Kennedy Space Center.