SpaceX, NASA launches the Crew-1 mission on a historic journey to the ISS

Resilience is on its way to the International Space Station. At exactly 7:27 pm ET, a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster came to life at Launch Complex 39A, with its engines lighting up the Florida coast. The perfect launch for the image of the Crew Dragon spacecraft in the shape of a rubber drop, given the nickname of Resilience, marks a historic moment in the history of American space flight.

“By working together in these troubled times, you have inspired the nation, the world and, in no small part, the name of this incredible vehicle, Resilience,” said Michael Hopkins, commander of Crew-1’s spacecraft prior to launch.

Resilience is a launch theme. Not since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011 has NASA sent humans into orbit from American soil on an operational mission. The launch of this particular mission has been delayed, postponed and postponed several times – the original timeline included a launch date of November 2016. Four years and some technical stumbling blocks later, Resilience is in flight.

The Crew Dragon contains an international assembly of astronauts: Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker of NASA, as well as Soichi Noguchi of the Japanese space agency JAXA. The team is expected to spend the next six months on the International Space Station.

“This is a great day for the United States of America and a great day for Japan,” said Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator, at a post-launch conference. “The big milestone here is that we are now moving away from development and testing to move to operational flights.”

“I’m looking forward to enjoying the new era and moving forward together for the future,” said Hiroshi Sasaki, Vice President of JAXA.

Just under 10 minutes after launch, the first Falcon 9 booster landed safely on the Just Read The Instructions droneship stationed in the Atlantic. It was the first time the reusable rocket was used on a mission, and the plan is for it to be reused in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon’s next operational flight, Crew-2.

Crew-2 is scheduled to launch in March 2021 and will again carry four astronauts. It will reuse the Crew Dragon Endeavor, which was first used in the SpaceX Demo-2 mission in May.

Shortly thereafter, at about 12 minutes, Resilience separated from the second stage and started. The spacecraft will now chase the ISS and dock at the station on November 16 at around 11pm ET.

This isn’t the first time a Falcon 9 rocket has delivered a Crew Dragon spacecraft into space. In May, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley were the first two humans to be transported into orbit via the SpaceX workhorse. But that was a test mission, the last box to be ticked before the official start of operations for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

Crew-1 reports the return of operational flights on US soil and the first flight in the PCC. Until now, NASA bought flights on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Flying SpaceX, NASA will save about $ 25 million per seat.

NASA also commissioned Boeing to deliver astronauts to the ISS, but the company’s manned spacecraft, Starliner, had technical problems during its first unmanned demonstration launch.

you can watch the launch replay below.