Thread by @thesheetztweetz

NASA is hosting a press conference on SpaceX's Crew-3 mission, including:

– @KathyLueders
– Commercial Crew manager Steve Stich
– ISS manager Joel Montalbano,
– SpaceX director of Dragon mission management Sarah Walker
– ESA ISS manager Frank De Winne

Thread:

@KathyLueders Lueders, speaking from SpaceX's HQ, says she "just can't believe" this third operational mission is coming just "16 months after Bob and Doug have flown."

Lueders also emphasizes that Kayla Barron is flying her first mission and will be NASA's 68th female astronaut, "once again showing what we can do to further the advancement of females in space."

Stich notes that SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavour in orbit on Friday "will break the record for the Crew-1 Resilience" capsule of 168 days in space.

Stich also congratulates SpaceX on the success of the Inspiration4 mission. NASA collected data from the flight, and will notably take a close look at the thermal protection system tiles after re-entering from a higher altitude.

Stich says NASA flew its WB-57 aircraft during Inspiration4's reentry "to collect some data on parachutes," which the agency is also examining alongside SpaceX.

Walker announces SpaceX is flying a new Crew Dragon spacecraft for Crew-3.

Walker emphasizes that "NASA Commercial Crew has opened the doors to missions like" Inspiration4 "being possible."

Walker says SpaceX has a fourth Crew Dragon "on the production line" that "should be ready in the spring."

Walker says four Crew Dragon capsules seems "sufficient to meet our manifest, which is thriving right now."

NASA's Montalbano says he was in Moscow last week talking to Roscosmos and the goal is for SpaceX's Crew-5 mission in fall 2022 to carry a Russian cosmonaut.

Stich says that NASA has "not lost confidence in the Boeing team," in light of the Starliner astronaut reassignment.

"I have every bit of confidence that that they're going to figure out what the problem is and they'll rectify it and we'll get back to flight really soon." $BA

Stich says "there's really not an opportunity" for the Starliner OFT-2 mission to fly before the end of this year.

The next opportunity "would be sometime early" in 2022. $BA

Stich: "It's really too early to narrow in on a date" for Boeing's OFT-2 because "we really need to get to the root cause on the valve issue."

Montalbano says the Russian side of the ISS still has small leak, losing "a little over a pound" of atmosphere per day.

"Our next step is to install some strain gauges," which were flown up during the summer.

"From an operational standpoint it's not affecting us."

Quick clarification on Lueders' point here:

https://twitter.com/SpcPlcyOnline/status/1445825293873291268