Stars aligning for on-time launch for McClain and company today
Editor’s note: Spokesman-Review reporter Nick Gibson is in Florida this week to report on Anne McClain’s and NASA’s SpaceX launch from the Kennedy Space Center. Follow along in print and online at spokesman.com/sections/return-to-space.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A steady line of tour buses, rental cars and media vans rolled into the Kennedy Space Center Wednesday morning, as folks from near and far prepared to watch a 230-foot rocket propel astronaut Anne McClain and her team to the International Space Station.
The gleeful masses had good reason to be excited; Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s 45th Weather Squadron said earlier that morning that the Florida weather was near perfect for the scheduled launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 launch at 4:48 p.m Pacific Time. The launch can be watched online on the space agency’s free streaming service NASA+. Crew-10 is the 10th crew to launch to the ISS from a SpaceX rocket.
The members of the first crew change for the space station this year, composed of McClain, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov and NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers, will be riding in a SpaceX Dragon capsule, attached to the top of a Falcon 9 rocket.
NASA said there is “a greater-than-95% chance of favorable weather conditions at Launch Complex 39A for tonight’s launch,” a release from the space agency said.
A few hours before liftoff, members of Crew-10 walked out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations & Checkout Building donned in gray and white spacesuits. The sprawling building on the Kennedy Space Center campus has served as the send off point for every mission since Apollo 7. The doorframe the crew stepped out of is littered with stickers, insignias of all the crews who walked before.
Crew-10’s friends and family waved from a short distance, to maintain the astronauts’ quarantine, as the four beamed smiles, occasionally throwing their arms up triumphantly.
McClain zeroed in on her mother, Charlotte Lamp, and the two exchanged a few words and heart-hand symbols. The U.S. Army Colonel then climbed into the back of Tesla Model Y emblazoned with the SpaceX logo alongside Ayers, the doors shut, and their family came up to the closed windows for a more intimate farewell.
As the cars pulled away to travel the short distance to the launchpad, Lamp wiped a few tears from her eyes.
The mission launch appears to have cleared all hurdles. The remaining work on the tech detailed by NASA and SpaceX officials last week has been wrapped up, including swapping and stress testing a thruster and further investigation of an engine fire that broke out within a Falcon 9 rocket that launched 21 Starlink satellites in early March.
“Throughout this intense period, I am immensely proud of the collective effort put forth to resolve late breaking technical issues, adjust operations as needed, and keep safety at the forefront of everything we do,” said Steve Stitch, manager of the agency’s commercial crew program.
Crew-10 practiced Wednesday’s launch sequence over the weekend, including trying on their suits, travelling all the way to the launch pad and taking the long elevator ride up to the capsule.
“We did a full dress rehearsal for the day of launch to ensure everyone and everything is ready,” McClain said via social media. “After walking through the access arm, getting into the capsule felt just like a normal training day. Exactly how it should be.
She ended her post with “We are ready. GO CREW-10!”