SpaceX, the NASA Crew-1 mission docks with the ISS for a six-month stay

At exactly 4:27 pm on Sunday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster came to life at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A, with its engines lighting up the Florida coast. The postcard launch of the gum-shaped Crew Dragon spaceship, nicknamed Resilience, was marked a historic moment in US space flight.

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 now docked at the International Space Station.

“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,” Michael Hopkins, commander of the Crew-1 spacecraft, said before launch.

Docking was supposed to take place at 8:00 PM PT and was basically on time. However, the shadows obscured the view of the space station crew and the astronauts decided to take a short wait 20 meters from the docking adapter. After waiting for the “sunset” and shadows to recede, Resilience made contact with the ISS and officially performed a “soft capture” at 8:01 pm PT and docked at approximately 8:15 pm PT.

“This is a new era of operational flights to the International Space Station from the Florida coast,” Hopkins said upon docking.

The Crew Dragon carried an international assembly of astronauts: Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker of NASA, as well as Soichi Noguchi of the Japanese space agency, JAXA. After a handful of security checks and a welcome ceremony in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the team will get to work on science experiments and maintenance. They are expected to spend the next six months on the station. The Dragon is capable of operating on its own and the Dragon is rated to stay at the station for 210 days, per NASA’s requirements.

The launch was celebrated on Sunday by representatives from NASA and SpaceX at a post-launch conference. “This is a great day for the United States of America and a great day for Japan,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “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.

Less than 10 minutes after launch, the first Falcon 9 booster landed safely on the droneship Just Read The Instructions 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.

About 12 minutes later, Resilience separated from the second stage and started on its way.

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 tick before operations for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program officially began.

Crew-1 reports the return of operational flights on US soil and the first flight in the PCC. Until recently, 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.

Updated November 17: Docking success added, title changed