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Full of fuel for a flight to the International Space Station later this month, SpaceX on Thursday moved the Crew Dragon “Recession” spacecraft to a hangar near the Bat 39A at Kennedy Space Center to connect with its Falcon 9 launcher.
The merchant group ship arrived on Thursday at the SpaceX hangar near the southern perimeter of 39A. SpaceX technicians inside the building this weekend will link the Crew Dragon with a Falcon 9 rocket.
The Merchant Group capsule will launch on November 14 at 7:49 PM EST (November 15 at 0049 GMT) with four astronauts. The mission, named Crew-1, will be SpaceX’s first operational spacecraft after a 64-day test flight to the space station with astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behanken earlier this year.
Named “Regression” for the Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-1 mission, Commander Mike Hopkins believes that “when we work together we can be an inspiration for all that is possible.”
“When you look at the definition of a recession, it means functioning better in times of stress or coping with adverse events, so we all agree that 2020 has certainly been a challenging year: global epidemic, economic hardships, internal unrest, loneliness – despite all of this, SpaceX (and) NASA has the production line and is preparing to launch this amazing vehicle on its first flight to the International Space Station, “Hopkins said.
“In our link, at the border, there are names, there are no flags, it was designed, because that link doesn’t really refer to all four of us, but actually refers to the countless people who have contributed,” Hopkins said in a press conference in September.
“The same theme applies to this vehicle’s name, regression. This is not just a link for the four of us, but we feel it is a link for all of you, all of you, “Hopkins said.” We hope it makes you smile. We hope it gives you something positive in your life, frankly, it’s a inspiration – when you work together, it shows that there is no limit to what you can achieve “.
In an interview with Space Flight Now, Hopkins said he expects the future reusable capsule aircraft to be named Reliance with the dragon crew spacecraft, also known as the SpaceX Dragon C207. Hurley and Behankan chose the name Endeavor for the Crew Dragon spacecraft on a demonstration aircraft called the Der-2.
The Crew Dragon Endeavor capsule will be upgraded for another flight to the space station in the Crew-2 mission in the first half of 2021. Crew-2 astronauts will transform Crew-1 into a six-month orbit on the space station.
Hopkins said the Crew-2 astronauts didn’t want to rename the Crew Dragon effort.
“So (the name) will stay with that vehicle, that’s what we expect,” Hopkins said. “Sometimes vehicles like ships get renamed when they are shipped from owner to owner, but mostly in case, it depends on the family, he stays with the company, so I would be surprised if his name changed, but everyone can decide that. way. “
Dragon’s transition to hangar signals is the start of the final phase of the launch campaign
The crew was taken by road from the Cape Canaveral Air Base refueling facility to Bat 39A, near the Dragon Recession. Before moving to the launch site, the spacecraft for capsule missile escape engines and orbital maneuvers was filled with hypercholesterolemic propulsion of hydrogen and tetroxide.
The ship’s Falcon 9 missile was already inside the hangar on the southern perimeter of the launch pad, the same coastal complex from which the Apollo moon missions and spacecraft left Earth.
Once SpaceX technicians have confirmed the mechanical and electrical connection between the spacecraft and the rocket, the 65-meter vehicle will roll onto Pad 39A and be lifted vertically for the Falcon 9 Merlin main engine test firing on Monday evening. .
The Another Falcon 9 rocket was successfully launched on Thursday evening. The 1-crew from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base was a milestone on the way to work. Falcon 9 Successfully Sends GPS Navigation Satellite To US Space Force, Confirms Engineers Presence Fixed Problem With Merlin Engines This delayed GPS mission and crew flight-1.
Hopkins, pilot Victor Clover, mission specialist Shannon Walker, and Japanese astronaut Sochi Nokuchi are expected to arrive at the Kennedy Space Center via NASA’s East Gulf Stream Jet (1900 GMT) Sunday at 2pm.
An aviation readiness study with top NASA officials is scheduled for Monday to discuss unresolved technical issues, review product launch status, and formally approve crews to continue the Crew-1 mission.
On Wednesday Hopkins and his team will unveil their SpaceX-made pressure cases for a “dry dress rehearsal” of launch day activities. Four astronauts will travel in two Tesla Model X cars from the crew at Kennedy Space Center to Bat 39A, where they will board the Crew Dragon shelter.
At the end of the trials, the team members will leave the ship and return to the group’s quarters.
Next Saturday, Nov.
Assuming a timely launch to the East at 7:49 pm on November 14, the crew should set sail spontaneously with the International Space Station eight and a half hours after the setback. 4:20 am EST (0920 GMT) November, 15 pm
Hours after the dock, Hopkins and his crew open the hatch to join Russian commander Sergei Ryzykov, aeronautical engineer Sergei Kut-Sverkov and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, the first to bring the long-term personnel of the laboratory.
Hopkins said that although Crew Dragon’s Demo-2 test plane with Hurley and Behenken demonstrated that the SpaceX-built capsule can transport astronauts safely to Earth for the space station, the Crew-1 mission will be his first. priority.
“One of the differences that need to be made between demo-2 and our mission is that they were part of the development and demonstration, and we’re really more involved in the process,” Hopkins said in an interview prior to Space Flight Now. “So we will keep the vehicle at its operating speed.
“This means that during that free flight phase we will find out how four people will live and operate in the vehicle, but we have been carrying things of that nature for a long time,” Hopkins said. “So although the first one was a test mission, it also had a flavor, because we’ll be there for four or more months longer than Bob (Behanken) and Doug (Hurley), so we’ll be able to monitor very closely how the vehicle is managing the space environment at that time.
“In general, I think this is a functional upgrade rather than a development test,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins, 51, was a colonel in the United States Air Force and served as an aeronautical testing engineer before being selected as a NASA astronaut in 2009. He completed a 166-day mission to the space station in 2013 and 2014 before being commissioned by NASA. The first operational crew dragon mission in 2018.
He said there were no manual pilot tests on the Crew-1 aircraft program, such as Doug Hurley’s demonstrations on the Demo-2 mission. If all goes to plan, the Crew Dragon Recession will connect to the space station in autopilot mode.
“We are definitely trained in manual piloting, but if an accident or breakdown occurs on board it will force us to switch to manual piloting,” said Hopkins.
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