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Aboard a rocket that has the perfect name for the year of a global pandemic, three American astronauts and one from Japan are expected to take off from Florida on Saturday night, as NASA finally returns to the chore of manned spaceflight.
The 7.49pm launch of the SpaceX Resilience capsule from Kennedy Space Center, a mission officially designated as Crew 1, will be the first time since the last flights of the space shuttle fleet in 2011 that the US space agency has its own rotating operational program to send beings humans at the International Space Station.
It follows the successful test flight earlier this year of SpaceX Demo 2, in which two NASA astronauts spent two months in orbit evaluating the hardware and software systems aboard the Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket built by the company. private space of Elon Musk.
The four crew members 1, Commander Michael Hopkins, mission specialists Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, chose the name Resilience to recognize the NASA and SpaceX teams that faced the challenges of the epidemic. of Covid-19 to keep the commercial crew program on track.
“If you look at the definition of resilience, it means functioning well in times of stress or overcoming difficult or stressful events. And I think we all agree that 2020 has definitely been a busy year, a global pandemic, economic hardship, civil unrest, isolation, “Hopkins, a 51-year-old US space forces colonel told reporters. a pre-flight interview last month.
“Frankly, it is in honor of our families, our colleagues, our fellow citizens, our international partners and our leaders who have demonstrated the same quality, the same characteristics.”
Mission managers at Cape Canaveral guided the astronauts, all but Glover veterans of previous space flights, through a dress rehearsal of launch procedures Thursday. It was the third pivotal milestone of the week after a flight readiness review on Tuesday and the official human-assessed certification on the same day, following a years-long design and development process, of the world’s first manned spacecraft operated by public partnership. -private.
“I am extremely proud to say that we are returning regular human spaceflight launches on American soil on an American rocket and spacecraft,” said Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator.
“This certification milestone is an incredible achievement from NASA and SpaceX that highlights the progress we can make by working together with the commercial industry.”
Crew 1 astronauts will join Nasa’s Kathleen Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov on the space station, orbiting 250 miles above Earth. Rubins’ seat at the October 14 launch of a Soyuz MS spacecraft from Kazakhstan was the latest NASA purchased from the Russian space agency, which has ferried American astronauts into space since the shuttle’s last flight in July 2011.
During their six-month stay, crew 1 astronauts will perform a wide range of scientific experiments.
Up to half a million people are expected to watch the launch, with NASA officials urging viewers to wear masks and keep social distance. “We want people to be careful when they are out there. From the point of view of NASA and SpaceX, and I’m sure a Jaxa [Japan aerospace exploration agency] prospect, we would be really sad if it were a major event, ”said Kathy Lueders, head of NASA’s human spaceflight program.
The scheduled launch on Saturday night had a 70% chance of “going” to forecasters on the 45th Space Wing of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The remnants of Hurricane Eta, which swept through Florida as a tropical storm on Thursday, are expected to still be swirling in the Atlantic, affecting several interrupted landing sites that may be needed in an emergency during the spacecraft’s ascent.
A backup launch opportunity is set for Sunday at 7:27 pm.
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