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SpaceX’s next astronaut flight to NASA is “ready” for launch this weekend, agency officials announced on Tuesday (November 10), followed by news that SpaceX has been certified for regular flights to and from the Station. International Space.
NASA and SpaceX completed a critical flight readiness (FRR) review for the Crew-1 mission on Tuesday afternoon, putting the company’s Falcon 9 rocket and the Crew Dragon spacecraft on track to launch four astronauts to the International Space Station on Saturday. (November 14). The mission is expected to take off at 7:49 PM EST (0049 GMT Sunday, November 15) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, weather permitting.
After the FRR, NASA completed the signing of the human classification certification plan for SpaceX’s crew transportation system, which includes Crew Dragon, Falcon 9, and their associated ground systems. This means that SpaceX is now certified to regularly launch astronauts to and from the ISS on behalf of NASA. Crew Dragon will be the first NASA-certified manned spacecraft to be launched since the space shuttle program ended in 2011.
“This is a great day,” NASA human space flight chief Kathy Lueders said at a post-FRR press conference. “But the next few days are also going to be great, and we will have to carefully go through our final preparation for flight. This thorough review today and everyone’s approval to move forward was a great first step towards flying.”
Video: SpaceX Crew Transportation System certified by NASA
In the pictures: SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station
Crew-1 will not only be the first mission to launch astronauts on a NASA certified commercial spacecraft; it is also the first time that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a launch license for a manned space mission.
“So we at the FAA look forward to this historic event,” Randy Repcheck, the FAA’s acting director for operational security, said at the news conference. “We have licensed suborbital launches with the flight crew, but no orbital launches, and certainly none with NASA.”
Launching the Crew Dragon spacecraft will be NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins and Shannon Walker, and astronaut Soichi Noguchi of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The crew of four will spend approximately 8.5 hours in flight to the International Space Station (ISS), where they will spend the next six months as crew members of Expedition 64.
Although the Crew-1 mission will be the first operational flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, it’s not the first time astronauts have flown a Crew Dragon. Crew Dragon’s first passengers were NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who spent about two months on the ISS earlier this year as part of the Crew Dragon Demo-2 test flight.
Starting with the Crew-1 mission, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon will make regular voyages to and from the ISS, providing an alternative to the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that has been carrying NASA astronauts for the past decade. (NASA also commissioned Boeing to take astronauts to the ISS on its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, which has not yet successfully completed a demonstration mission and is scheduled to make a second stab at an unmanned test flight in 2021. )
“For the next 15 months, we will carry out seven crew and Dragon cargo missions for NASA. This means that, starting with crew-1, there will be a continued presence of SpaceX Dragons in orbit,” said Benji Reed. senior director of human spaceflight at SpaceX, said in the post-FRR press conference. “And starting with the CRS-21 cargo mission, every time we launch a dragon, there will be two dragons in space simultaneously for long periods of time.”
“We are honored to be the nation’s launch provider for crew missions and take seriously the responsibility NASA has given us to transport American astronauts to and from the space station,” Reed added. “Honestly, we couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve already accomplished together.”
Email Hanneke Weitering at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @hannekescience. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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