NASA moves moon rocket to launch pad
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Four astronauts are hours away from strapping into a spacecraft and departing the International Space Station about a month early after one of them experienced a health issue. The impending departure would mark the first time in the station's 25-year history that a crew on the orbital outpost has cut a mission short in order to be medically evacuated.
NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 5:05 p.m. EST, Wednesday, Jan. 14, for the undocking of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission.
However, deep space exploration has become significantly more accessible, largely thanks to data from instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Hubble Space Telescope. Initially,
NASA plans for Crew-11 to depart the station at about 2 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. ET Wednesday, Jan. 14, pending weather and recovery conditions. The ship is targeted to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off California at about 12:40 a.m. PT / 3:40 a.m. ET Thursday, Jan. 15.
NASA's plans for Mars sample return are effectively cancelled as part of a bill approved by the U.S. Congress, ending efforts to collect Perseverance rover samples that could contain evidence of alien life.