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Fully refueled for a flight to the International Space Station later this month, SpaceX moved the Crew Dragon “Resilience” spacecraft to a hangar near Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday for connection to its Falcon 9 launcher.
The commercial crewed ship arrived at SpaceX’s hangar near the southern perimeter of 39A on Thursday. SpaceX technicians inside the building will link the Crew Dragon with a Falcon 9 rocket before taking the fully assembled launcher up the ramp to Pad 39A this weekend.
The commercial crew capsule launch is scheduled for November 14 at 7:49 PM EST (0049 GMT Nov 15) with four astronauts on board. The mission is known as Crew-1 and will be the first operational flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft after a 64-day test flight to the space station earlier this year with astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-1 mission is called “Resilience,” a name Commander Mike Hopkins said he hoped “could be an inspiration to everyone on what’s possible when we work together.”
“If you look at the definition of resilience, it means performing well in times of stress or overcoming adverse events, so I think we all agree that 2020 has certainly been a challenging year: a global pandemic, economic hardship, civil unrest, isolation – and despite all this, SpaceX (and) NASA have kept the production line and finished this amazing vehicle that is preparing for its first flight to the International Space Station, “Hopkins said.
“On our patch, you will notice that there are names at the border, there are no flags, and it was designed because that patch does not really represent the four of us, but it really represents the countless people who helped set up the vehicle and prepare us for this mission.” Hopkins said at a press conference in September.
“The same theme applies to this vehicle’s name, Resilience, it’s not just a connection for the four of us, but we really feel like a connection to all of you, to everyone,” Hopkins said. “We hope it brings a smile to your face. We hope it provides something positive in your lives and, frankly, is an inspiration – which shows when you work together that there is no limit to what you can achieve. “
In an interview with Spaceflight Now, Hopkins said he expects the name Resilience to stay with the Crew Dragon spaceship – also known by SpaceX as the Dragon C207 – on future flights of the reusable capsule. Hurley and Behnken chose the name Endeavor for the Crew Dragon spacecraft during their demonstration flight, known as Demo-2.
The Crew Dragon Endeavor capsule is being refurbished for another flight to the space station on the Crew-2 mission in the first half of 2021. The Crew-2 astronauts will replace the Crew-1 on the space station after six months in orbit.
Hopkins said Crew-2 astronauts do not intend to rename Crew Dragon Endeavor.
“So that (name) stays with that vehicle, and I expect the same thing on ours,” Hopkins said. “Sometimes vehicles like ships get renamed when they are passed from owner to owner, but in this particular case, it’s staying in the family, it’s staying with the company, so I’d be surprised if it was renamed, but obviously people might decide this way. “
The move of Dragon to the hangar marks the beginning of the final phase of the launch campaign
Crew Dragon Resilience was transported by road from a refueling facility at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to Pad 39A. Before moving onto the launch pad, the spacecraft was filled with hypergolic hydrazine and tetroxide propellants for the capsule launch escape engines and orbital maneuvering thrusters.
The ship’s Falcon 9 launcher was already inside the hangar at the southern perimeter of the launch pad, the same bathing complex from which the lunar missions and Apollo space shuttles departed from Earth.
Once SpaceX technicians confirm the mechanical and electrical connection between the spacecraft and the rocket, the entire 65-meter (215-foot) vehicle will roll towards pad 39A and rise vertically for a test of ignition of the main engines of the rocket. Falcon 9 Merlin Monday evening.
The successful launch of another Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday evening was a key milestone that led to the Crew-1 mission. The Falcon 9 has successfully deployed a GPS navigation satellite for the US Space Force, confirming that engineers have apparently fixed a problem with the Merlin engines that delayed the GPS mission and flight of the crew-1.
Hopkins, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Shannon Walker, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi are expected to arrive at the Kennedy Space Center via a NASA Gulfstream jet on Sunday afternoon around 2:00 PM EST (1900 GMT).
A Flight Readiness Review is also scheduled on Monday called by top NASA officials to discuss unresolved technical issues, review the status of launch preparations, and give formal approval to teams to proceed with the Crew-1 mission.
Hopkins and his teammates will don their SpaceX-produced pressurized suits Wednesday for a “dry dress rehearsal” of launch day activities. The four astronauts will travel inside two Tesla Model X cars from the crew quarters at Kennedy Space Center to Pad 39A, where they will board the Crew Dragon Resilience.
At the end of the tests, the crew members will exit the spacecraft and return to the crew quarters.
SpaceX is planning a Launch Readiness Review on Thursday, another checkpoint to officially sign the scheduled launch of the Crew-1 mission next Saturday, November 14.
Assuming a timely launch at 7:49 pm EST on November 14, the Crew Dragon Resilience should dock autonomously with the International Space Station approximately eight and a half hours later at 4:20 am EST (0920 GMT). ) on November 15.
A few hours after docking, Hopkins and his crewmates will open hatches to join Russian commander Sergey Ryzhikov, flight engineer Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins on the station, adding to the long-term staff. of the laboratory up to seven people for the first time.
Although Crew Dragon’s Demo-2 test flight with Hurley and Behnken demonstrated that the SpaceX-built capsule can safely transport astronauts to the space station and back to Earth, Hopkins said the Crew-1 mission will have its own. first.
“I think one of the distinctions to make between Demo-2 and our mission is that they were more a part of development and demonstration, and we are really more operational,” Hopkins told Spaceflight Now in a pre-flight interview. “Then we will put the vehicle to operational test.
“That means we’re trying to figure out how four people will live and operate in the vehicle during that free flight phase, but we’re also bringing more durability and things like that,” Hopkins said. “So even though the first one was a test mission, this one also has a bit of that flavor because we’re going to be up there for four or more months longer than Bob (Behnken) and Doug (Hurley), so we’ll be monitoring very closely how the vehicle manages the space environment for that period of time.
“In general, I think it’s more of an operational checkup than a development test,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins, 51, is a US Air Force colonel and served as a flight test engineer prior to his selection as a NASA astronaut in 2009. He completed a 166-day expedition to the space station in 2013 and 2014 before the NASA appointed him to command the first Crew Dragon operational mission in 2018.
He said the crew-1 flight plan does not include any manual piloting tests like the demonstrations performed by Doug Hurley on the Demo-2 mission. If all goes to plan, the Crew Dragon Resilience will connect to the space station in autopilot mode.
“We’ve certainly been trained in manual piloting, but that’s if there’s any kind of emergency or any breakdown on board that will force us to switch to manual piloting,” said Hopkins.
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.
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