Fully fueled for a flight to the International Space Station later this month, SpaceX relocated the crew dragon “Resilience” spaceship near the Pad 39A to the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday in connection with its Falcon 9L chercher.
The merchant crew arrived in the hangar of SpaceX near the southern perimeter of 39A on Thursday. Inside the building, the SpaceX technician will attach the crew dragon to the Falcon 9 rocket before rolling the full-assembled luncher on the ramp this weekend.
The commercial crew capsule is scheduled to launch on November 14. With four astronauts aboard EST (November 15, 0049 GMT). The mission is known as Crew-1, and it will be the first operational flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft since SpaceX’s 64-day test flight earlier this year with astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behneken.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-1 mission has been dubbed “Resilience,” with Commander Mike Hopkins saying he hopes “what is possible when we work together can be an inspiration to everyone.”
“As you see the definition of resilience, it means to do well in times of stress or to avoid adversity, so I think we all agree that 2020 has definitely been a challenging year – global epidemics, economic hardships, civil disasters. The turmoil, the isolation – and despite all that, SpaceX (and) NASA has kept the production line and finished this amazing vehicle that is getting ready to go on its first flight to the International Space Station, ”Hopkins said.
“On our patch, you will see that on the border, there are names, there is no flag, and that was by design because the patch doesn’t really represent the four of us, but it really represents the countless people who have contributed. “To prepare the vehicle and prepare us for this mission,” Hopkins said at a press conference in September.
“The same theme applies to the name of this vehicle, resilience, it’s not just a connection for the four of us, but we really feel like it’s a connection with all of you, with everyone.” “We hope it brings a smile to your face. We hope it provides something positive in your life, and to a greater extent, that it is an inspiration – it shows that there is no limit to what you can achieve when you work together. “
In an interview with Spaceflight Now, Hopkins said he hopes the naming will be with the Crew Dragon spaceship – also known as Dragon C207 by SpaceX – on reusable capsule flights. Hurley and Behanke chose the name Andover for the Crew Dragon spacecraft in their demonstration flight, known as Demo-2.
The Crew-2 spacecraft is being refurbished in the first part of the Crew-2 mission in 2021 for the second flight of the space station on the Crew-2 mission. Crew-2 astronauts will replace Crew-1 on the space station after half a year of orbit.
Hopkins said Crew-2 astronauts do not intend to change the name of the crew Dragon Endeavor.
Hopkins said, “So he (name) is sticking with that vehicle, and I’ll assume the same thing on us.” Sometimes the names of vehicles like ships are changed when they move from one owner to another, but especially if he stays in the family, he stays in the company, so I would be surprised if his name is changed, but obviously people like this Can decide. “
The beginning of the final phase of the Long Campaign is the dragon’s hangar transport
Crew Dragon Resilience was transported by road from the fuel facility at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to Pad 39A. Before proceeding to the launch pad, the launch of the spacecraft capsule was filled with hypergolic hydrangea and tetroxide propellant for escape engines and orbital drill thrusters.
The ship’s Falcon 9 launcher was already inside the hangar on the southern perimeter of the launch pad, the same seaside complex where the Apollo Moon mission and space shuttle departed from Earth.
Once the SpaceX technician confirms the mechanical and electrical connection between the spacecraft and the rocket, the entire 215-foot (65-meter) vehicle will roll up to Pad 39A and raise the vert for test-firing of the Falcon 9’s Merlin main engine on Monday evening.
The successful launch of the second Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday night was a key target for the crew-1 mission. The Falcon 9 is a U.S. GPS for Space Force Successfully deployed the navigation satellite, confirming that the engineers had apparently resolved an issue with the Merlin engines that delayed the GPS mission and crew-1 flight.
Hopkins, pilot Victor Glover, mission expert Shannon Waker, and Japanese astronaut Sochi Noguchi are due to arrive at the Kennedy Space Center by NASA Gulfstream jet around 2pm on Sunday (1900 GMT).
A flight readiness review called by top NASA officials is also scheduled for Monday to discuss unresolved technical issues, review the status of launch preparations and formal formal approval for teams to proceed with the Crew-1 mission.
Hopkins and his cremates will put on their SpaceX-pressure suit on Wednesday for a “dry dress rehearsal” of their launch day activities. The four astronauts will ride inside two Tesla Model X automobiles from the Kennedy Space Center’s crew quarters to the Pad 39A, where they will board a Crew Dragon Resilience.
Once the rehearsal is complete, the crew members will exit the spacecraft and return to the crew quarters.
SpaceX plans a launch readiness review on Thursday, next Saturday, November 14th. Another checkpoint to officially sign up for the scheduled launch of the Crew-1 mission on.
Assuming an on-time launch on November 14 at 7:49 p.m., Crew Dragon Resilience is to independently dock with the International Space Station eight-and-a-half hours later at 8:20 a.m. EST (0920 GMT). ) On 15 November.
Hours after docking, Hopkins and his cremators will open hatches to join Russian commander Sergei Ryazikov, flight engineer Sergei Kud-Sverkov and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins at the station – complementing the lab’s long-term crew of up to seven. For the first time.
Although Crew Dragon’s Demo-2 test flight with Hurley and Behnken proved that the SpaceX-built capsule can safely carry astronauts to and from Earth, Hopkins said the Crew-1 mission will have its own flagship location.
“I think one of the differences between Demo-2 and our mission is that it was more in the development and demonstration part, and we’re really more active,” Hopkins said in an interview before the flight. “So we will drive at its dynamic speed.
“That means we find out how four people live and drive on-border during that free flight phase, but we also bring long-term nature and things of that nature,” Hopkins said. Said. “So even though it was a test mission at first, it has a little bit of flavor in it because we’ll be there four or more months longer than Bob (Behnken) and Doug (Hurley). , So we will observe very closely how the vehicle handles the atmosphere of that time space.
“In general, I think it’s an operational checkout rather than a development test,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins, 51, is a colonel in the U.S. Air Force and served as a flight test engineer before being selected as a NASA astronaut in 2009. He completed a 166-day mission to the space station in 2013 and 2014 before NASA named him to command. The first operational crew dragon mission in 2018.
He said the crew-1 flight plan did not include any manual piloting tests, such as the one performed by Dr. Doug Hurley on the Demo-2 mission. If everything goes according to plan, the crew will connect to the space station in Dragon Resilience autopilot mode.
Hopkins said, “We’ve definitely been trained in the manual piloting phase, but that’s if there’s some kind of contingency or a failure on board that would force us to go on a manual pilot.”
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