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The last time the space station held just three astronauts, an American and two Russians, was in April 2020 as NASA cut Russia’s dependence on the Soyuz rocket for flights to the orbital lab. A month later, SpaceX sent the first batch of NASA astronauts into space, with Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley marking the first crewed flight from American soil in nearly a decade.

This time, NASA tried to avoid the three-man short crew scenario by launching Crew-3 astronauts before Crew-2 left, ensuring a clean handover on the space station between the two crews. But bad weather delayed the launch of Crew-3, originally scheduled for Halloween. Then, a “minor medical issue” with one of the Crew-3 astronauts triggered another delay. NASA ultimately decided to turn its attention back to Crew-2 as the astronaut’s medical problem subsided.

Agency officials said the medical issue had nothing to do with Covid-19, but did not go into further detail or identify the affected astronaut, only to expect it to be resolved before the Wednesday launch of Crew-3 on Saturday.

A crew of three with just one American is not ideal for space station operations. Without a backup American astronaut, a NASA safety panel warned last year that it jeopardizes a permanent US presence on the space station. It also complicates the maintenance of the space station if the short-handed crew lasts long. Spacewalks to replace some batteries outside the station were rescheduled during the 2020 recession until more astronauts arrived.

Mr. Vande Hei and Mr. Dubrov have been on the station since April, when they launched a Russian Soyuz rocket with a third Russian. return to Earth in a different spacecraft last month. In September, Mr. Vande Hei’s six-month mission to the space station was extended to 353 days with a launch date of March 2022, setting him on track to break the record for the longest spaceflight ever made by an American astronaut (Scott Kelly, a retired spaceflight). NASA astronaut spent 340 days in space during a mission that ended in 2016).

“It has definitely helped that Mark Vande Hei stay on the space station,” NASA’s space station manager Joel Montalbano told reporters at a press conference about the updated Crew-2 program on Saturday.

He said NASA’s efforts to secure a deal with Russia’s space agency to trade astronaut seats between the Crew Dragon and Soyuz spacecraft will help avoid scenarios when the station drops to three people. These talks have been stalled for years, but US and Russian officials said last month that progress has been made towards the first codeshare aboard Crew Dragon.

While there will be only three people on the International Space Station after Crew-2 leaves, there will be three more in orbit. China’s Tiangong space station, which is under construction, is currently home to three astronauts, the second crewed since reaching orbit earlier this year.

During this phase of the journey, called atmospheric reentry, the Crew Dragon’s outer shell will hit temperatures of up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The astronauts inside will stay cool with the help of an air conditioning system. A plasma envelope will form around the accelerating capsule, cutting off communication with ground control a few minutes before the spacecraft drops to descending speeds of about 350 miles per hour.

Then, effectively pressing the brakes, two sets of parachutes will open and shake the crew to slow the capsule even further. Small explosive devices would separate these parachutes just before another group of four large chutes opened, reducing the capsule’s speed to about 15 miles per hour.

The pod is located in Pensacola, Fla., in the Gulf of Mexico. It is expected to splash from the shores around 22:33 in the evening. Regarding the predictions, it looks great,” said Gary Jordan, a NASA spokesman.

NASA has released live broadcast The journey will continue until a short time after the capsule falls into the water.

Shortly before docking, NASA and SpaceX were deployed to Pensacola, Fla., for Crew Dragon’s splash zone. He chose an area nearby. It’s one of seven different places in the waters around the Florida peninsula where the capsule can land, and NASA chooses where the weather is most favorable. Clear skies, calm seas and gentle winds are the basic conditions for a space taxi jump.

Since the astronauts began flying in the SpaceX capsule in May 2020, the two crews have landed in the Gulf of Mexico near the Florida Panhandle. Third, it returned to the Atlantic Ocean near Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Shane Kimbrough of NASA. Mr. Kimbrough, 53, is the commander of Crew-2. It has also made two previous trips to space, once aboard the space shuttle Endeavor in 2008, and then spent more than six months on the space station from October 2016 to April 2017.

K. Megan McArthur of NASA. 49-year-old Dr. McArthur is the mission’s pilot and had previously flown aboard the space shuttle Atlantis in May 2009 on the final mission to refurbish and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. During this assignment, a trained oceanographer, Dr. McArthur activated the shuttle’s robotic arm, grabbing the telescope and placing it in the cargo hold.

McArthur is married to astronaut Bob Behnken, who traveled on the first astronaut flight of the same SpaceX capsule last year. He will sit in the seat he occupied during the flight.

Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency. Mr. Pesquet, 43, previously spent six months on the space station from November 2016 to June 2017, coinciding with Mr. Kimbrough for most of his stay. He is French. Recently, Mr. Pesquet served as the commander of the space station.