The rocket and capsule crew built by SpaceX will take crew members to the International Space Station in Florida on Sunday. The NASA mission follows a successful demonstration of the same spacecraft that launched in May and returned two astronauts to Earth in ast gust. Here’s what you need to know about the launch.
What is SpaceX launching?
Four astronauts – three from NASA, one from the Japanese space agency JXA – will be sitting inside a SpaceX crew dragon capsule, orbiting the top of a Falcon 9 rocket. The mission is known as Crew-1, and the astronauts named their capsule Resilience. They are heading to the International Space Station for a six-month stay.
This is the first of the crew Dragon’s NASA operates “flights”. In May, there was an demonstration mission with two NASA astronauts – Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley – aboard. The launch, for the first time, took place in a capsule called Endeavor, when the crew mission orbited the United States in 2011 after the retirement of the Nagar space shuttle. His return was also the first water landing by an astronaut aboard an American spacecraft. Apollo capsules ceased to fly in the 1970s.
NASA relies on Russian Soyuz rockets to deliver its astronauts to the space station. Which has become increasingly expensive at a cost of more than Rs 90 million per seat.
When is the launch?
The Crew-1 mission is scheduled to begin Sunday at 7:27 a.m. Eastern Time from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA Television will broadcast the coverage starting at 3:15 p.m.
The astronaut will arrive at the space station at 11 a.m. Monday night on a journey of about 27 hours.
Forecasts currently offer 50 percent favorable conditions on the launchpad. SpaceX and NASA are also keeping an eye on the Atlantic Ocean. If something went wrong while climbing the orbit and the crew dragon needed to disperse the emergency there was a need to remain fairly calm in the weather and water (adverse weather conditions resulted in postponing the start date to Saturday).
If there is a delay in early Sunday, there is a backup opportunity on Wednesday.
Who are the astronauts?
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 previous trips to the International Space Station in 2013 and 2014, spending 166 days in orbit.
Shannon Waker55 55, had a previous innings on the space station in 2010. Dr. Walker has a doctorate in space physics from Rice University, where he studied how the solar wind interacts with Venus’s atmosphere.
Sochi NoguchiAstronaut 55, with Japan’s space agency JXA, will make its third trip to space. He was a member of the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery in 2005 after the first shuttle launch in 2005 after the loss of more than two years to Columbia and its seven astronauts.
During that visit to the International Space Station, Mr. Nuguchi built three spacewalks. Which involves a test technique developed to repair damage to heat tiles on a shuttle, similar to the one Columbia was doomed to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere. In 2009 and 2010, he spent five months in orbit as a member of the space station crew.
Victor Glover44 44, selected by NASA to become an astronaut in 2013, will make its first spaceflight. He will be the first black NASA astronaut to serve aboard the space station crew. Mr. Glover’s achievement is significant for NASA, which has worked to reveal “hidden statistics” in its history, but has 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 on the station. But those who took it further from NASA were members of the space shuttle crew during the construction of the station and only completed a short stay on the outpost.
Allison Weller contributed to the report.
