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- SpaceX launched its first operational orbiting mission for NASA on Sunday, with four astronauts on board.
- On Monday night, the astronauts reached the International Space Station and docked.
- The mission, dubbed Crew-1, requires astronauts to spend the next six months on the ISS, the longest human spaceflight ever launched from US soil.
- The commercial mission represents a great opportunity for NASA to increase the amount of scientific research it can conduct on the ISS and sets the stage for future private astronaut flights.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
On Monday night, four astronauts arrived at the International Space Station inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, preparing for what could be an unprecedented stay in orbit.
The NASA-funded commercial mission, called Crew-1, marks the first “operational” human spaceflight by SpaceX, the rocket company Elon Musk founded in 2002. It follows the Demo-2 mission, the first human launch of SpaceX, which took off in May and returned to Earth in August.
Crew-1 astronauts, Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins and Shannon Walker of NASA and Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday night on a Falcon 9 rocket. They spent most of the night settling into Resilience, as they named their space capsule, while helping SpaceX troubleshoot booster and cabin heater problems.
A Falcon 9 rocket built by SpaceX lifted off from Launch Complex 39-A carrying four astronauts aboard the Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft Sunday at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Joel Kowsky / NASA
On Monday, the vehicle fired its thrusters multiple times to ensnare the ISS, beginning a football field-sized lab appointment around 9 p.m. ET. Resilience spent an hour maneuvering about 400 meters in front of the facility and then another hour carefully, and automatically, crawling forward as the astronauts reviewed the flight data.
“They won’t have to press any buttons or turn on any thrusters,” said Leah Cheshier, a NASA communications specialist, during a live broadcast Monday night. “Dragon is doing all this on his own, he is completely autonomous.”
The spacecraft gently collided and activated a temporary locking mechanism at 11:01 p.m. ET, gently anchoring the astronauts to their new home.
Astronauts monitor the Resilience as it autonomously docks to the International Space Station on Monday.
NASA / SpaceX
“Resilience, SpaceX. Docking sequence is complete. Welcome to the ISS,” a SpaceX mission controller told the crew as grappling hooks firmly secured the vehicle in a port around 11:13 pm ET.
“Excellent work, downtown,” replied Hopkins, the mission commander. “SpaceX and NASA, congratulations: This is a new era of operational flights to the International Space Station from the coast of Florida.”
‘It was an incredible journey’
After a two-hour process of pressurizing an adapter with air, checking for leaks, and opening all the hatches, the crew finally floated to the ISS at 1:02 a.m. ET.
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov welcomed them with open arms.
Rubins waving to Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover as they passed through the Crew Dragon hatch to the International Space Station.
NASA / SpaceX
“It was an incredible ride,” Hopkins said. “I can’t tell you how excited we were when the rocket lifted off the platform and the last 27 hours [in orbit] it went really well. “
The spacecraft appeared to work just as NASA and SpaceX had hoped, once they solved the first mishaps with the capsule heaters.
“After clearing a couple of alarms a bit after launch yesterday, the vehicle arrived at the station today with full redundancy, full functionality, without a hitch,” said Ven Feng, deputy director of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which funded the development of the spacecraft. he said at a press conference after the docking. “The dragon is in beautiful shape.”
The Resilience docked autonomously to the International Space Station on Monday.
NASA / SpaceX
Resilience and its passengers intend to spend the next six months in space. Assuming all goes well, Crew-1 will become the longest human spaceflight ever launched from US soil, breaking a record set more than 45 years ago.
By expanding the ISS crew, those on board will not have to spend as much time on maintenance, allowing NASA to conduct more scientific research than ever before.
“I can’t tell you how great it was to see you all walk through the hatch,” Kathy Lueders, NASA’s associate administrator for exploration and human operations, told crew members once they were on the ISS. “We expect a lot from you, a great job up there.”
A commercial boost to the space station after 20 years in orbit
The international space station.
POT
Since the United States withdrew its space shuttles in 2011, NASA has had to purchase seats on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft to fly astronauts to and from the ISS, a facility that has been continuously inhabited by humans for 20 years.
To help bridge the gap, NASA launched the Commercial Crew Program a decade ago – a competition to stimulate private companies to develop new spacecraft. The roughly $ 8 billion program led SpaceX to develop Crew Dragon and Boeing to develop its CST-100 Starliner (which can fly its first crew by the end of 2021).
NASA funded the creation of Crew Dragon with approximately $ 3 billion, and SpaceX engineers designed, built, and tested it to stringent government requirements. Agency bosses finally certified the system for scheduled flights last week, in large part due to the success of the Demo-2 flight, which carried NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to and from the space station.
“This is the culmination of years of work and effort by many people, and a lot of time, and we have built. I think what I would call is one of the safest launch vehicles and spacecraft in history,” Benji Reed said. the director of mission management of the SpaceX crew, during a press conference before the launch of Crew-1.
NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, Glover and Hopkins and JAXA’s Soichi Noguchi wore SpaceX spacesuits on their way to Launch Complex 39A during a dress rehearsal Thursday prior to the Crew-1 mission launch from Kennedy Space Center.
Joel Kowsky / NASA
Crew-1 is the first of six roundtrips NASA has purchased from SpaceX, formally ushering in an era of commercial space flight. The vehicle is not limited to professional astronauts – private astronauts can also fly into space for years to come.
For example, Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman plan to launch to the ISS in 2021 aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft to shoot a movie. “Space Hero,” a reality television show, also aims to bring a contestant to the facility in 2023. A company called Axiom Space plans to hire SpaceX for tickets.
However, the most important thing for NASA is expanding the space station crew. The ISS offers an unrivaled zero-gravity environment in which to conduct research that cannot be done on Earth. However, science is difficult to do when only a few crew members are on the ISS, as they are often preoccupied with regular cleaning and maintenance. Occasionally his time is also spent looking for leaks and repairing toilets.
Now, with SpaceX looking to maintain a continuous presence in orbit with Crew Dragon, the space station can be fully staffed, and NASA can meet its $ 100 billion investment in the facility.
Crew-1 aims to advance a variety of research, including studying how the body responds to eating certain foods in microgravity and the effects of space flight on the brains of astronauts. The crew will also experiment with tissue chips, plant growth, and even part of a new spacesuit designed for the Moon and Mars.
“We are ready for the six months of work that await us aboard the International Space Station, and we are ready for the return,” Hopkins said during a pre-flight briefing.
