NASA canceled yesterday, for the second time in a few hours, the return of the Crew-4 mission to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) due to bad weather in the arrival areas off the coast of Florida (USA) and has postponed to today with "greater forecasting certainty".
The hope is that the ditching can take place today.
A few hours before the separation of the Dragon Freedom ship from Space X, with its four crew members on board - including the Italian Samantha Cristoforetti - the NASA flight controllers suspended operations and then canceled the departure and set for today the new chance to return.
"Mission teams continue to monitor a cold front sweeping through Florida on Thursday, October 13, bringing strong winds and rainy weather near the splashdown areas," the Space Agency explained yesterday.
This is the second postponement of the return of this mission which was initially supposed to begin its journey to Earth last Wednesday but has been postponed due to weather conditions.
Commander Kjell Lindgren, his NASA colleagues Jessica Watkins and Bob Hines, and the Italian Samantha Cristoforetti, of the European Space Agency (ESA), will travel aboard the Dragon Freedom, built by the private company SpaceX.