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Crew Off-Duty for Russian Holiday While SpaceX Sets Saturday Launch

Barry Wilmore and Samantha Cristoforetti
Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore of NASA and Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (ESA) pose for the camera on Christmas day aboard the International Space Station. Wilmore is holding a patch traditionally given to astronauts following their first flight on a Soyuz spacecraft.

The six-member Expedition 42 crew had the day off and relaxed Wednesday for the Russian Christmas holiday. Meanwhile, SpaceX engineers in Florida worked to troubleshoot an issue in the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket that halted Tuesday’ s launch of its Dragon commercial cargo craft.

Dragon’s launch atop the Falcon 9 rocket is now set for Saturday at 4:47 a.m. EST with live NASA Television coverage scheduled to begin at 3:30 a.m. SpaceX’s fifth cargo mission for NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract will arrive at the International Space Station on Monday culminating in the robotic capture of Dragon around 6 a.m. Live NASA TV coverage will begin at 4:30 a.m.

› Read more about the SpaceX CRS-5 mission