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Four astronauts, three from NASA, one from JAXA, the Japanese space agency, will be sitting inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, propelled to orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket. The mission is known as Crew-1, and the astronauts named their Resilience capsule. They are heading to the International Space Station for a six-month stay.
This is the first of what NASA calls “operational” flights of the Crew Dragon. In May, there was a demonstration mission, with two NASA astronauts, Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley, on board. That launch, in a capsule called Endeavor, was the first time that a manned mission took off from the United States to orbit since the retirement of NASA’s space shuttles in 2011. Their return was also the first water landing for astronauts to aboard an American spaceship. since the Apollo capsules stopped flying in the 1970s.
NASA has relied on Russian Soyuz rockets to get its astronauts to the space station. That has become increasingly expensive, coming in at a cost of more than $ 90 million per seat.
The Crew-1 mission is scheduled to launch at 7:27 pm ET Sunday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA Television will air the coverage starting at 3:15 pm OR you can watch it in the video player below.
In its latest weather forecast issued Sunday morning, the US 45th Space Force Meteorological Squadron offers a 50 percent chance of favorable conditions on the launch pad. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said on Twitter Sunday afternoon that the agency was monitoring conditions, but was still planning a launch attempt.
SpaceX and NASA are also monitoring further out into the Atlantic Ocean. The weather and waters should be fairly calm in case something goes wrong during the climb into orbit and the Crew Dragon needs to make an emergency landing (adverse weather conditions led to a postponement of the previous Saturday’s launch date) .
As is customary with Falcon 9 rocket launches, the first stage or push is to return to Earth and land on a floating platform, and that also requires that the ocean waters are not too choppy. The Crew-1 thruster will be refurbished and reused for the next astronaut launch, scheduled for next spring.
If Sunday’s release is delayed, there is a backup opportunity on Wednesday.
There are four astronauts in Crew-1:
Michael S. Hopkins, 51, a colonel in the United States Space Force, is the commander of the flight. (Colonel Hopkins is also the first member of the newly created US Space Force to go into space). He was one of nine astronauts selected by NASA in 2009. He made a previous trip to the International Space Station, in 2013 and 2014, spending 166 days in orbit.
Shannon walkerThe 55-year-old was on the space station in 2010. Dr. Walker has a Ph.D. in space physics from Rice University, where she studied how the solar wind interacted with the atmosphere of Venus.
Soichi noguchiA 55-year-old astronaut from JAXA, the Japanese space agency, will make his third trip to space. He was a member of the Space Shuttle Discovery crew in 2005 on the shuttle’s first launch after the loss of Columbia and its seven astronauts more than two years earlier.
During that visit to the International Space Station, Mr. Noguchi conducted three spacewalks. That included one to test techniques developed to repair damage to heat tiles on the shuttle similar to what had doomed Columbia when it reentered Earth’s atmosphere. In 2009 and 2010, he spent five months in orbit as a member of the space station crew.
Victor gloverThe 44-year-old, selected by NASA in 2013 to be an astronaut, will make his first space flight. He will be the first black NASA astronaut to be a member of a space station crew.
In the 20 years that people have been living aboard the International Space Station, its expanded crew has never included a black astronaut. Victor J. Glover, a Navy commander and test pilot who joined the astronaut corps in 2013, will be the first.
Since the inception of the International Space Station, it has seen many other milestones: hosting the world’s first space tourist, having its first female commander, and supporting the transition of American astronauts transported through NASA’s space shuttle program to using the spacecraft. SpaceX space.
But Mr. Glover’s achievement is remarkable to NASA, which has worked to highlight the “hidden figures” in its history, but has so far sent only 14 black Americans into space out of a total of more than 300 NASA astronauts. .
He will not be the first black astronaut aboard the station. But those who preceded him from NASA were members of the space shuttle crews during the station’s construction and made only brief stays at the outpost.
Glover and three other astronauts will launch Sunday aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule called Resilience and are expected to spend about six months aboard the station.
Next year, he could be followed by Jeanette Epps, who would be the first black woman to be part of an ISS team. It will fly aboard the first crewed operational voyage of Boeing’s Starliner capsule. (In 2018, they took her off a flight to the station and replaced her with Serena Auñón-Chancellor.)
NASA first involved black Americans in the astronaut program in the 1960s when Ed Dwight, an Air Force test pilot, became an astronaut candidate. But he never went to space. Guion S. Bluford Jr. became the first African-American in space in 1983 aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger; Mae Jemison was the first black woman in 1992.
Sunday’s release follows a summer of racial and social unrest in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police. When asked during a news conference Monday about his thoughts on making history, Glover modestly nodded to the meaning.
“It is something that should be celebrated once we achieve it, and I am honored to be in this position and to be a part of this great and experienced team,” he said. “And I hope to get there and do everything I can to make sure, you know, that we are worthy of all the work that has gone into preparing for this mission. You know, unlike the choice, which is in the past or retrograde in the past, this mission is still ahead of me. So let’s go there and I’ll talk to you after we get on board. “
Over the summer, Glover responded to a question on social media about astronauts strictly sticking to space.
“Not really,” said on Twitter. “Remember who is making room. People are. As we tackle extreme weather and pandemic diseases, we will understand and overcome racism and bigotry so that we can make space safely and together. Thanks for asking.”
He also said this week in an interview with The Christian Chronicle, a Churches of Christ publication, that the milestone was “bittersweet.”
“I’ve had some amazing colleagues before me who really could have done it, and there are amazing people who will back me up,” Glover said. “I wish it had already been done, but I try not to draw too much attention.”
Charles F. Bolden Jr., who served as NASA administrator during Barack Obama’s presidency, said that while Glover was making history, he shouldn’t feel burdened.
“Several of us have had the opportunity to try to talk to him regularly and try to help him feel comfortable and understand that he doesn’t carry the weight of the world on his shoulders,” said Bolden, who is also black and nearly 700 hours in space as a NASA astronaut. “You shouldn’t feel unusual responsibility for being black. You should go and be another member of the crew and have a good time. “
Mr. Glover is married to Dionna Odom and they have four children.
Originally from Pomona, California, Mr. Glover graduated with a bachelor’s degree in general engineering from California Polytechnic State University in 1999. Over the course of 2007 to 2010, he earned three master’s degrees: in flight test engineering, systems engineering and military operations. art and science.
His counterparts often refer to Mr. Glover as Ike, a nod to the call sign given him by a former commander-in-chief that means “I know everything.”
If the launch goes as scheduled on Sunday, the Crew Dragon will dock at the International Space Station on Monday at approximately 11 p.m. Eastern time.
Launch occurs when the orbit of the space station passes above the launch pad. However, it takes hours for the capsule to reach the space station, which is traveling at more than 17,000 miles per hour. Once the capsule approaches the station, its on-board computer will complete a series of maneuvers to bring it safely closer to the outpost. Then, it will carefully dock with one of the station’s ports that allow astronauts to enter.
Even after docking, it takes astronauts hours to make sure there are no leaks and equalize the pressure between the two spacecraft before the hatch opens and new residents can finally enter the space station. That will happen around 1:40 a.m. Tuesday, and the astronauts will hold a short boarding ceremony with the station’s current crew.
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