SpaceX sends next 4 humans to space on Crew-7 mission to ISS

“We know the importance of flying crew and the trust the crew puts in us,” said SpaceX’s William Gerstenmaier during this week’s flight readiness review. “We put every effort into crewed missions. We don’t treat them like other missions. They’re special for us and we make sure we’re really ready to go and the hardware is really ready to go,” Orlando Sentinel reported.

A Friday attempt was officially scrubbed before the crew made it to the launch pad.

“After performing an extra data review, teams decided to take additional time to reconfirm required factors of safety and operational margin on one of the Dragon spacecraft’s environmental control and life support system (ECLSS) components,” NASA posted about the delay.

“The new launch date provides teams additional time to complete the analysis and thoroughly review the necessary data ahead of launch.”

The first-stage booster for the mission flew for the first time and made a successful recovery landing at nearby Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, bringing with it the double sonic boom heard along the Space Coast and other parts of Central Florida.

NASA had originally planned for SpaceX and Boeing to share taxi service duties to the station with each flying just one rotational mission each per year, but with Boeing’s delays, SpaceX continues to be the workhorse. Crew Dragon has also flown private missions including two Axiom Space flights to the ISS and an orbital mission called Inspiration4 with billionaire Jared Isaacman.

The Crew-7 astronauts make it 42 humans Crew Dragon has been sent to space across 11 missions in just over three years with Crew-8, another Axiom Space flight, and another Isaacman-led orbital flight called Polaris Dawn coming up.

It’s the 43rd launch from the Space Coast so far this year with all but two coming from SpaceX. It’s the third crewed launch this year as well.

RHM/PR