2024 American crewed spaceflight to the ISS
SpaceX Crew-8 was the eighth crewed operational NASA Commercial Crew flight and the 13th overall crewed orbital flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft. The mission launched on 4 March 2024.
The Crew-8 mission transported four crew members to the International Space Station (ISS). Three NASA astronauts, Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and one Roscosmos cosmonaut, Alexander Grebenkin, were assigned to the mission.
The Crew-8 mission was extended to accommodate problems encountered by the Boeing Crew Flight Test during its mission. The crew outfitted the Crew-8 capsule to accommodate two extra astronauts if an emergency occurred prior to Crew-9 docking on 29 September 2024.
Mission.
Crew-8 was the eighth SpaceX operational mission in the Commercial Crew Program and the 13th overall crewed orbital flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft. The mission launched at 3:53:38UTC on 4March 2024 (3March, 10:53:38pmEST, local time at the launch site). SpaceX sent the 50th astronaut on this Crew Dragon launch.
The first launch attempt, the day prior was scrubbed at T−03:25:38 due to elevated winds in offshore areas of the flight path.
Launch attempt summary.
"Note: times are local to the launch site (Eastern Daylight Time)."
Relocation.
To make way for a Boeing Starliner as a part of the Boeing Crew Flight Test that would dock to the forward port of "Harmony" on 6 June 2024, the crew relocated Crew Dragon "Endeavour" to the zenith port of "Harmony" on 2 May 2024, docking to the zenith port at 13:46 UTC. Boeing Starliner "Calypso" successfully launched on 5 June 2024 and docked to the forward port of "Harmony" on 6 June.
Support for Starliner CFT.
The Boeing Crew Flight Test mission docked with the ISS on June 6, 2024 after experiencing anomalies with its thrusters. Its crew of two remained on the ISS for an unplanned extended stay, while NASA and Boeing evaluated the problems. NASA decided that the uncertainties were too high to have the crew return to Earth on Starliner, so NASA sent the Crew-9 mission to the ISS with a crew of two, and the Starliner crew will then return to Earth with Crew-9 in February 2025, while Starliner undocked from the ISS and made a successful uncrewed return to Earth in September 2024. This was necessary because the ISS has only two IDSS ports shared between Dragon and Starliner. However, each ISS crewmember needs a contingency "lifeboat" in the event of an ISS emergency, and uncrewed undocking of the Starliner would leave its crew without a lifeboat. Therefore, NASA directed the crews to install two extra crew positions in the cargo area of the Crew-8 capsule to provide the lifeboat function after Starliner undocks and before Crew-9 docked. Until Crew-9 arrived, they moved to SpaceX Crew-8, their temporary emergency evacuation spacecraft, and subsequently to Crew-9.
Mission duration.
Crew-8 was originally planned to return to Earth in early August after a nominal 180-day mission, but the mission was extended several times. It was extended initially as NASA investigated the CFT situation, and extended again to provide the lifeboat function while Boeing worked to reconfigure Starliner to perform the uncrewed return. The NASA maximum mission time for Crew Dragon is ordinarily 210 days, but NASA extended it to 240 days for this mission. The overlap after Crew-9 arrived was slightly longer than usual to allow time to reconfigure Crew-8 and Crew-9 as the Starliner astronauts moved to Crew-9. The return of Crew-8 was delayed for several additional weeks due to poor weather conditions in the splashdown zones surrounding Florida caused by Hurricane Milton and several other storms. The cumulative delays caused Crew-8 to become the longest Dragon mission.
Landing.
Crew-8 undocked from the ISS on 23 October 2024 at 21:05UTC. After a completing 3,760 orbits and traveling nearly , "Endeavour" began its entry back into the Earth's atmosphere and splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, near Pensacola, Florida on 25 October 2024 at 07:29:02UTC (3:29:02amEDT, local time at the landing site). The capsule taken aboard the recovery ship . After the crew exited the spacecraft, they were taken into the ship's onboard medical treatment facility for evaluations. After that check-up, NASA flew all of the crew members to the Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola by helicopter for additional evaluation. One astronaut was hospitalized, but NASA declined to provide the individual's condition or identity. NASA said that the entry and splashdown was normal and the recovery of the crew and the spacecraft was without incident. The astronaut was released from the hospital the following day and was said to be in "good health".
References.
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