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SpaceX’s Crew Dragon “Resilience” spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket – which spans 215 feet in length – are ready for launch on NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A, in preparation for the launch of four astronauts on Saturday night. to the International Space Station.
These photos were taken inside the SpaceX hangar at the southern perimeter of pad 39A. A transporter-erector will carry the rocket up the ramp of the historic launch pad over the sea, the same place where the Apollo 11 lunar mission took off in 1969.
The Crew Dragon capsule, called Resilience, will take off with the first operational rotation flight of the SpaceX crew to the International Space Station. The mission, named Crew-1, will deliver astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi to the orbiting outpost for a six-month expedition.
The capsule arrived at the hangar built on the southern perimeter of Pad 39A last Thursday, November 5, to be integrated with its Falcon 9 launch vehicle. These photos show the Crew Dragon spacecraft – measuring 8.1 meters (26 , 7 feet) high and about 13 feet (4 meters) in diameter – inside the hangar mounted on SpaceX’s strongback transporter for launch to the launch pad.
The reflective solar panels mounted on the capsule body are easily recognizable in the images, along with its stabilizing fins, which would help with the aerodynamics of the spacecraft that had to perform a launch abort maneuver.
The NASA “worm” logo printed on the upper stage of Falcon 9. The worm sign was painted on the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket for Crew Dragon’s Demo-2 test flight earlier this year.
Three other Falcon 9 first stage boosters are pictured inside the hangar of pad 39A, all showing signs of previous space travel.
The fully assembled Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon capsule extends tip to tail by 65 meters (215 feet). The launch scheduled for Saturday at 19:49 EST (2249 GMT) will mark the 98th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket since its debut on June 4, 2010.
Visit our Mission Status Center to continue live coverage of the Crew-1 mission.
#SpaceX The Falcon 9 rocket is ready! This is our rocket! pic.twitter.com/cfS9V7JxYb
– NOGUCHI, Soichi Satoshi Noguchi- (Soichi Noguchi) (@Astro_Soichi) November 9, 2020
See you soon @NASA_TV for Crew-1 LIVE! 1315ET, 1215CT, 0215 JST! There will be an online press conference on NASA TV from 2.15am Japan time! Watch online ♪ pic.twitter.com/K8KFEuEh11
– NOGUCHI, Soichi Satoshi Noguchi- (Soichi Noguchi) (@Astro_Soichi) November 9, 2020
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.
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