McClain, rest of Crew-10 ready for ‘take two’ of launch day

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. – NASA and SpaceX are prepared for “take two” of the Crew-10 mission launch Friday, as Spokane astronaut Anne McClain put it in a message on social media.

The space agency and its corporate partner in the Commercial Crew program said they’ve completed the necessary inspection of a ground system hydraulics issue that delayed by a few days the launch originally scheduled for Wednesday.

Ground teams wrapped up the work affecting one of the clamp arms holding the rocket in place Thursday and “successfully flushed a suspected pocket of trapped air in the system,” according to a release from the agency.

Weather conditions for the target launch Friday at 4:03 p.m. Pacific are also favorable, with “a greater-than-95% chance of acceptable conditions at launch,” the space agency said Thursday. The launch will be live streamed through the agency’s free streaming service, NASA+.

If the launch were to be delayed again for whatever reason, it likely would be pushed until next week, as the chance of unfavorable weather conditions rise to 50% Saturday, and 60% Sunday.

Crew-10, composed of McClain, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov and NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers, will go through the whole rigmarole of Wednesday again. The delay means the crew, base and those who’ve traveled to support the team have the benefit of knowing what to expect, said Charlotte Lamp, McClain’s mother.

“I guess this is the third time I’ll be ready for a launch, because in Russia, she went up right away,” Lamp said Friday morning, alluding to McClain’s last launch to the ISS from Kazakhstan in 2018.

Crew-10 will suit up and depart from the Neil A. Armstrong Operations & Checkout Building on the Kennedy Space Center campus a few hours before launch, bid their at-distance farewells with their friends and family, and make the short drive over to launchpad 39A, where the SpaceX Dragon “Endurance” capsule and Falcon 9 rocket transporting them to the International Space Station will be waiting.

Lamp said the delay was not unexpected, and that she can’t say she is nervous or scared for her daughter. Mountains of effort and thought go into the rocket and capsule’s design, the launch logistics and the mission at-large to ensure it’s as safe and reliable as possible. The NASA folks have taken great care of her to ensure she’s comfortable throughout the trip.

It also helps that the Falcon 9 rocket’s boosters fire into a pit below the launchpad, rather than climbing up the sides of the rocket as they did in McClain’s first launch, she added.

“It disappears in fire for five seconds, and then it takes off,” Lamp said. “Here, it takes off immediately, and you don’t see that fire consuming the rocket to begin with. it’ll be a lot less nerve-wracking.”

At the time of the interview, Lamp had not yet checked in with her daughter. The crew has been on the ISS sleep schedule for days to ensure they’re alert through the flight and upon arrival, which is expected to occur Saturday, around 8:30 a.m. Pacific.

“It’s the schedule they need to be on, because one of the places that they really step in to monitor and guide things is the approach and the hook up with the space station,” Lamp said. “I suppose you would not want to miss it, and be off to the moon or something.”

Although, McClain likely wouldn’t mind a visit to the moon, as one of the women on the shortlist to be the first there, as part of NASA’s Artemis mission.

“In a few years, though,” Lamp said.

The week has been enjoyable, but the kerfuffle around the launch has been a little overwhelming for Lamp. She said she’s an introvert, like her mother was, and “Anne too, believe it or not.” There was nowhere near the same crowd when McClain launched last time, she said.

When the crew walked out in their suits Wednesday, Lamp and her daughter shared a moment, greeting each other with smiles, flashing heart-hands and blowing kisses before and after McClain loaded into a Tesla for transport to the launchpad. That wasn’t their official goodbye, though, Lamp said.

The two spent a few weeks together in quarantine, as space travelers are required to do before launch, which Lamp broke earlier this week. They were able to hug, talk intimately and have a memory only the two of them will share before Lamp left the facility on the Kennedy Space Center campus. 

The hardest part of the experience is not knowing exactly when McClain will return to Earth, although a usual stint aboard the orbiting laboratory lasts between four and six months.

Still, Lamp knows her daughter is in good hands. She looks forward to a repeat of the walkout and send off Friday afternoon.

“I told her as she walked up to the car, I yelled so she could hear it, ‘Have a good trip. Have a good launch,’” Lamp said. “I’ll probably say about the same thing today.”