The undocking of a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying the four Ax-1 astronauts from the International Space Station will now occur no earlier than Sunday night, according to Kathy Lueders, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate.
In the update, as echoed on NASA’s website, Lueders said the delay was imposed due to high winds at the splashdown site. The change of plans has had no effect thus far on Wednesday’s anticipated Crew-4 launch, Lueders said.
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The undocking had originally been planned for Tuesday, but was delayed until Saturday before being pushed to Sunday, also due to unfavorable weather at the splashdown location off the Florida coast, according to NASA.
We now are targeting 8:55pm ET Sun., April 24, for #Ax1 undocking from the @Space_Station due to high winds at the splashdown site. Ax-1 splashdown is about 1 p.m. Mon., April 25. At the moment, no impact to Crew-4’s Wed., April 27 launch date, but still watching weather closely.
— Kathy Lueders (@KathyLueders) April 23, 2022
NASA’s coverage of the capsule’s return is now scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Sunday with hatch closure, and undocking set for 8:55 p.m.
Re-entry and splashdown are expected Monday, with coverage to come courtesy of Axiom Space and SpaceX.
News 6 will plan to livestream both the undocking and splashdown of the Ax-1 mission on ClickOrlando.com when that coverage begins.