The SpaceX launch marks the beginning of regular commercial flights into orbit



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“It’s a reminder to always keep your mouth shut, and I’ll get started now,” Victor said of his nickname at a press conference in October.

The crew includes NASA astronaut Shannon Walker, who flew a Soyuz mission in the ERA in 2010, and Soichi Noguchi, from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, who flew aboard the NASA space shuttle and the Soyuz spacecraft. .

At the ISS, the crew meets NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, who arrived at the space station in October.

With so many people in orbit, the cockpit will be cramped – the space station has dorms for only six crew members, so Mike Hopkins has offered to sleep in a makeshift spot. This could mean sleeping in the dragon capsule, which is attached to the ISS, a capsule named by the crew Resilience in honor of the SpaceX and NASA teams who managed to prepare the mission for launch as they dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Often, in the days of the space shuttle, the commander slept in the cockpit,” says Mike. “If any of us were to sleep there, I felt it had to be me.”

Soichi Noguchi is the most experienced astronaut on crew-1, having logged 177 days in space on two missions, including the first NASA flight since the 2003 shuttle crash. Columbia. Soichi has a dry sense of humor and says what bothers him the most are “people who do not use the flasher to drive“, And he also admits that he” falls asleep during meetings. “Soichi loves sushi so much that he even made a salmon roll in space.

For her part, Shannon Walker says she is particularly anxious to return to orbit, having already spent six months on the space station in 2010.

“It’s a great place,” says Shannon, adding that what she wants most is to revisit the dome, a glass dome connected to the station’s Tranquility module. “Having the opportunity to observe this wonderful 360-degree view of the Earth – and the rest of the universe – is very special,” says Shannon, who has a Ph.D. in space physics.

When Shannon spoke National Geographic prior to launch, she said she wasn’t particularly concerned about any part of the Crew-1 mission. “I have no major worries,” Shannon said. “I mean, I have to make sure my taxes are paid while I’m up there. It will be quite challenging. “



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