Saturday’s mission called Crew-1 will really get things out of hand. The four astronauts are not all test pilots. They come in a variety of backgrounds – from academia to robotics engineering – and once on the space station they are ready to become full-time residents, where they will do research as well as complete 20-year repairs and maintenance. -Years orbiting laboratory.
It is a gumdrop-shaped capsule about 13 feet in diameter and is equipped with seven seats and touchscreen controls. SpaceX spent a decade developing and testing spacecraft that should not be confused with SpaceX’s experimental Mars rocket, starship or the company’s cargo-only dragon spacecraft, which has been flying supplies to and from the space station for years.
The crew dragon and astronauts will orbit the top of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and the astronauts will fly over the vehicle on the day of launch using Ariel. After the rocket crew fires the dragon into the atmosphere above, the spacecraft will detach and fire its own thrusters to begin maneuvering towards the space station.
The Crew Dragon Capsule is completely autonomous, so astronauts will most likely only need to observe the systems and keep in touch with mission control until something goes wrong.
Crew-1 astronauts have named their crew dragon spacecraft “Resilience” in recognition of “global epidemics, economic hardships and civil unrest”, which, according to Hopkins, has made 2020 a particularly challenging year.
Why is it called “Crew-1”?
This crew is considered the first fully operational mission of the Dragon spacecraft.
From now on, the spacecraft will have the “crew” names of any missions that flew on behalf of NASA: Crew-2 missions, will take off after Crew-1, to fly in the spring of 2021. On both missions, the use of the term to identify astronauts’ crew of astronauts serving as full-time staff members on the space station will lead the space station to join the official ISS “mission.”
But SpaceX doesn’t just have to sell seats to NASA or other professionally trained astronauts. The space agency said SpaceX would be able to sell seats behind future missions to tourists, private explorers or anyone else who could pay for the seat.
Already, a Houston-based company called Axiom is planning a mission with four private citizens aboard the SpaceX crew dragon. That mission, dubbed AX-1, is expected to begin next year. Details about that mission have not yet been revealed.
Who is going into space?
Victor Glover
Glover, 44, will pilot the mission.
Born in Pomona, California, Glover Cal has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Polytechnic, and holds three master’s degrees from various engineering programs.
Even though he spent about 10,000,000 hours flying more types of aircraft, the SpaceX crew mission will mark the first time Glover has flown into space.
Shannon Waker
55, Walker will be one of two mission specialists on Crew-1 to oversee the crew dragon’s on-board systems during the flight and to keep other crew members on schedule.
She holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in physics from Rice University, as well as a doctorate in physics. She became involved in the Rockwell Space rations Operations in the late 1980s, where she worked with NASA and supported seven space shuttle missions from the Mission Control Center in Houston. He later joined NASA’s ISS program, spending a year with Roscosmos, working on the design of various robotic components. Russian space agency in Moscow, where he helped coordinate with various international partners. She was working at NASA’s Houston facilities back in 2004 when she was selected for astronaut training.
Walker has logged on to one of the previous missions in space: in 2010, she served as a pilot in the Russian Soyuz mission at ISS, where she spent 161 days before returning to Earth.
Michael Hopkins
The 51-year-old Hopkins will serve as commander of the Crew-1 mission, which will give him the same duties as captains on coastal vessels.
Born in Missouri, Hopkins holds a master’s and bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois (where he was also captain of the football team) and Stanford University, respectively. He spent several years testing aviator aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base in California, then studied political science in Italy before moving to work as an engineer at the Pentagon. He joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 2009.
Like Waker, Hopkins has been the first to travel into space. In 2013, he boarded the Russian Soyuz spacecraft and spent about six months on the ISS, including 166 days in space.
Sochi Noguchi
The 55-year-old Noguchi SpaceX crew will be the first astronaut from longtime NASA ally Japan’s JXA space agency to board the dragon. During the crew-1 flight he will serve with Walker as a mission specialist.
Why is this important?
NASA has been anxiously awaiting this mission for over a decade.
After the retirement of the space shuttle program in 2011, USAK left its astronauts without the ability to fly to and from the ISS. For years, Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft has been the vehicle employing the space station.
With the crew Dragon’s inaugural flight over the summer – SpaceX replaced – the “Demo-2” test mission – which flew test pilots Douglas Hurley and Robert Behneken to begin a two-month workload on the ISS. But the primary goal of that trip was to collect data on how the crew dragon operates.
According to NASA’s Steve Stich, the spacecraft that will carry Hopkins, Werker, Glover and Noguchi will have “a lot of improvements” based on what NASA and SpaceX learned from that flight. For example, the spacecraft’s solar panels encouraged them to be more durable.
Crew Dragon has been officially certified as a vehicle capable of carrying humans, NASA plans to see its plans fly several trips to the ISS each year, new groups of astronauts – and perhaps, one day, private citizens.
Is it safe to launch during an epidemic?
According to NASA, yes.
The astronauts were in strict contact with each other, and extra care is being taken to keep everything clean.
NASA, SpaceX and military personnel will need to gather in the control room to support the launch, and they have implemented additional security measures to combat the spread of Covid-19.
One thing NASA can’t control is how many people flock to nearby beaches in Florida to pick up rockets.
During Crew Dragon’s last mission in May, thousands of people flocked to public beaches to catch a glimpse of the burning takeoff. Soon, Florida became the Covid-19 hotspot, although it’s not clear how many cases have been linked to the rocket-watching crowd. More than 17,200 people have died from the virus in the state.
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