NASA to launch first commercial crew rotation mission on SpaceX International Space Station


Health

Published on 4 October October, 2020 |
By guest contributor

October 4, 2020 By Guest contributor


Originally published on NASA

Official Crew Portrait of SpaceX Crew-1 (left) NASA astronauts Shannon Waker, Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, and JXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Sochi Noguchi. Credits: NASA

NASA and SpaceX are launching regular missions of missions with astronauts launched on American rockets from American soil to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s commercial crew program. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 is the first crew rotation mission to have four astronauts flying on a commercial spacecraft, and the first to be an international partner.

NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Waker and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JXA) Sochi Noguchi SpaceX crew are set to land on the space station on the Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket. Crew-1 astronauts have named the spacecraft Resilience, the dedication shown by the teams involved in the mission and to show that when we work together, there is no limit to what we can achieve. They named it in honor of their families, comrades and fellow citizens.

The launch is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 31, at the launch complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew is scheduled to stay on the orbit laboratory for a long period of time, for science and maintenance. Four astronauts are due to return in the spring of 2021.

Completed earlier this year was NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 test flight crew Dragon’s final demonstration flight. The test flight, along with NASA astronauts Robert Behanken and Douglas Hurley, is helping to validate SpaceX’s crew transport system, including launch pads, rockets, spacecraft and operational capabilities. NASA is working to complete certification of the Crew Dragon system ahead of the Crew-1 mission.

Hopkins and Glover were assigned to the Crew-1 mission in 2018 and began working and training on SpaceX’s next-generation human spacecraft. Vaker Kar and Noguchi joined the crew earlier this year.

Michael Hopkins is the commander of the Crew Dragon and Crew-1 mission. Hopkins is responsible for all stages of the flight, from launch to re-entry. He will also serve as a Trip 64 flight engineer at the station. Selected as a NASA astronaut in 2009, Hopkins spent 166 days in space as a long-term crew member of Expeditions 37 and 38 and completed two spacewalks for a total of 12 hours and 58 minutes. Born in Lebanon, Missouri, Hopkins grew up on a farm outside Richland, Missouri. He holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Stanford University. Hopkins was a flight test engineer in the US Air Force before joining NASA.

Crew members of the SpaceX Crew-1 (left) include NASA astronauts Shannon Waker, Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins and JXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Sochi Noguchi. Credits: SpaceX

Victor Glover is the pilot of the crew dragon and is second-in-command for this mission. Glover is responsible for spacecraft systems and performance. He will also be a long-term space station crew member. Selected as an astronaut in 2013, this will be his first astronaut. The California native holds a science degree in general engineering, a master’s degree in flight test engineering, a master’s degree in systems engineering, and a master’s degree in military operational professional art and science. Glover is a naval pilot and was a test pilot in F / A – 18 Hornet, Super Hornet, and EA – 18G Groller aircraft.

Shannon is a mission specialist for Vaker Tax Crew-1. As a mission specialist, he will work closely with the commander and pilot to inspect the vehicle during the dynamic launch and during the re-entry phases of the flight. It will also be responsible for monitoring timelines, telemetry and consumables such as fuel and atmospheric levels. Once at the station, Vaker will become a flight engineer for Expedition 64. Selected as a NASA astronaut in 2004, Vaker Kare began the International Space Station aboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft as a co-pilot, and spent 161 days on it. Circulation laboratory. During his investments in fields such as human research, biology and materials science, more than 1 micro0 experiments were carried out. A native of Houston, Waker earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Rice University in 1987, and a master’s degree in rice and a doctorate in space physics from Rice University in 1992 and 1993, respectively.

There will also be a mission specialist for the Sochi Noguchi Crew-1, who will work with the commander and pilot to monitor the vehicle during dynamic launches and re-entry phases of the flight, and to monitor timelines, telemetry and consumables. Noguchi will also be a long-term crew member aboard the space station. He was selected as an astronaut candidate in May 1996 by Japan’s National Space Development Agency (NASDA, now the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). Noguchi two spaceflight p. Is. During the space shuttle mission STS-114 in 2005, Noguchi became the first Japanese astronaut to make a spacewalk outside the space station. He did a total of three spacewalks during the mission, including 20 hours and 5 minutes of spacewalk time. He boarded the Soyuz spacecraft in 2009 to return to the station as a long-term crew member. The Crew Dragon will be the third spacecraft that Noguchi has flown in an orbital laboratory.

Launching from the launch pad 39 on the Falcon 9 rocket, the crew dragon will accelerate its four passengers to about 17,000 miles and put them on an intercept course with the International Space Station. Once in orbit, Crew and SpaceX Mission Control will automatically monitor a series of maneuvers that will guide Crew-1 astronauts to their new home in orbit. After about a day in orbit, the crew will be in a position to dock with the dragon render and space location. The spacecraft is designed to dock selfishly for astronauts aboard the spacecraft, with the ability to take control of themselves and the pilot if necessary.

A picture of the SpaceX crew dragon docked on the International Space Station on July 1, 2020.

After successful docking, Crew-1 astronauts will be welcomed to the station by NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Sergei Kud-Sverkov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos. For the first time, the space station’s crew will expand to seven people with 64 expeditions, increasing the amount of crew time available for research.

The crew dragon used for this flight will be docked at the station for about six months for the full length of the long-term space station mission. Crew-1 astronauts will spend their time on the International Space Station doing new and exciting scientific research in areas such as botany, cancer and technology.

Will be grown in place of radishes. This model plant is nutritious, grows rapidly, and is genetically similar to Arabidopsis, which plants frequently study in microgravity. The findings could help optimize plant growth in space as well as assess their nutrition and taste. Scientists are taking advantage of microgravity to test drugs based on messenger ribonucleic acids (mRNA) to treat leukemia. The new toilets moving to the space station have many features that improve existing space toilet operations and help us prepare for future missions, including the Moon and Mars.

During their stay at the orbital laboratory, Crew-1 astronauts will see the Northrop Grumman Cygnus, the next pay generation of the SpaceX Cargo Dragon spacecraft, and unmanned spacecraft, including the Boeing CST-100 Starliner, test its flight toward the station. . They will also host various spacewalks and the upcoming crew of the Russian Soyuz vehicle in 2021 and the upcoming SpaceX crew dragon.

At the end of the mission, the crew dragon will automatically board the board with four astronauts, depart the space station and re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere. After scattering off the coast of Florida, the crew will be taken to sea by the SpaceX recovery ship and brought ashore to board the plane to return to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The Crew-1 mission is a major step forward for NASA’s commercial crew program. The operational, long-term commercial crew rotation mission will enable NASA to continue critical research and technical investigations underway at the station. Such research benefits people on Earth and lays the groundwork for future research into the Moon and Mars, starting with the agency’s Artemis program, which will land the first woman and the next man on the lunar surface in 2024.


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Tags: Astronauts, NASA, Space, SpaceX, US Air Force


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