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The Crew-1 mission is the first operational flight for the Crew Dragon capsule.
Four astronauts will be launched into orbit on Sunday in the historic first operational flight for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft as part of NASA’s commercial crew mission.
This marks the second manned mission for Elon Musk’s private space company SpaceX, following the successful launch and return of NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley with the Demo-2 mission this summer.
It is also the culmination of years of collaboration between NASA and the private sector as part of an effort to restore launch capabilities to US soil and end Russia’s reliance on travel to the International Space Station.
“This is another historic moment – it seems like every time I come to Kennedy [Space Center] we are making history, and this is no different, “NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said at a pre-launch press conference on Friday.” The story made this time is that we are launching what we call an operational flight to international space. Railway station.”
“The goal here is to market our assets in low Earth orbit,” he added. “NASA wants to be a customer of many customers in a very strong commercial market for human spaceflight in low earth orbit.”
Launch is scheduled for 7:27 PM ET Sunday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A in Florida, after being rejected – first to assess an engine problem with the Falcon 9 rocket and then again due to weather. . The launch and docking will be streamed live on the NASA website.
Meet the diverse crew
The crew for the historic launch includes a Space Force colonel, a black pilot leaving Earth for the first time, a woman who has amassed nearly 4,000 hours in space, and an astronaut from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency.
NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, as well as JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, will remain on the ISS for six months after launch and assist with maintenance and research.
Hopkins, mission commander, spent 166 days in space and completed multiple spacewalks. The Missouri native worked as a flight test engineer with the Air Force before joining NASA.
This will be the first space flight for Glover, the pilot and second in command. Born in California, Glover was selected as an astronaut in 2013 and is a former naval aviator.
Walker is the team’s mission specialist. She is an ISS veteran, having spent 161 days aboard the orbiting laboratory in 2010 conducting numerous experiments.
Noguchi, also a mission specialist, is the first member of NASA-SpaceX’s international crew. Noguchi has been on two space flights and made history as the first Japanese astronaut to take a spacewalk outside the ISS in 2005.
Late last month, the crew said they were calling their spacecraft “Resilience” – a nod to the ability to overcome the myriad challenges thrown at them during this tumultuous year.
“If you look at the definition of resilience, I know that it means performing well in times of stress or overcoming adverse events, and I think we can all agree that 2020 has certainly been a challenging year,” Hopkins said in one. Press conference.
“So the name ‘Resilience’ is really in honor of the SpaceX teams and NASA and, frankly, it is in honor of our families, our colleagues, our fellow citizens, our international partners and our leaders who have all demonstrated that same. quality, that same characteristic, in these difficult times, “he added.
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