Astronauts “very excited” for SpaceX Crew Dragon launch to space station this weekend

NASA and SpaceX managers met at the Kennedy Space Center on Monday to review preparations for the launch of a Crew Dragon Spaceship Saturday on its first operational flight to transport four astronauts to the International Space Station.

Keep an eye out for threatening weather conditions Tropical storm state, the four “Crew-1” astronauts – Commander Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi – flew to Florida spaceport on Sunday amid strict coronavirus quarantine protocols.

“As you can imagine, we’re very happy to be here,” Hopkins told reporters at a virtual press conference Monday. “We’ve been here less than 24 hours, and during that time we’ve seen our rocket, we’ve seen our spacecraft, ‘Resilience’, and we’ve seen our spacesuits. And so for an astronaut, it’s considered a pretty good day. “

Asked about the weather, Hopkins said the crew were following developments very closely. “It had impacts on our preparations. … But at the moment, we are still on a plan to be ready to launch on 14. “

With high winds and rain rocking the Florida space coast, SpaceX delayed a scheduled engine test run of the crew’s Falcon 9 rocket from Monday to Tuesday, coinciding with the conclusion of the flight readiness review. two-day NASA tour.

Assuming the engine test goes well and the weather cooperates, Hopkins and his teammates plan to take off from historic Platform 39A at 7:49 p.m. EST on Saturday, orbiting atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. With a launch On time, the Crew Dragon capsule will dock at the station’s front port around 4:20 a.m. Sunday.

Expedition 64 Commander Sergey Ryzhikov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins will be standing to welcome them on board. They launched for the station on October 14 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Rubins used the last Soyuz seat currently under contract from NASA. NASA is counting on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, and possibly Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, to end the agency’s sole reliance on Russian for transportation to and from the station.

“Our relationship with our Russian partners and the ability to fly with them to the International Space Station on the Soyuz has been fantastic,” said Hopkins, who flew in a Soyuz on his first flight to the station in 2013. “But at the same time. Time is also good to have your own capabilities. And it’s great for our country, it’s great for the world to have options in terms of space penetration.”

Using the three-seater Soyuz, the station was limited to six crew members. The Crew Dragon will transport four astronauts at a time to the lab compound, bringing the station’s crew to seven and increasing the amount of research that can be done.

“It’ll be exciting to see how much work we’re going to be able to do where we are,” Hopkins said. “I know they have a plan, we actually got a chance yesterday to see what that first week looks like. And already, there’s not a lot of gray space in there. So I think that. they’re going to keep us very busy. “

The launch of Crew-1 follows two Crew Dragon’s successful test flights at the lab complex, the first unmanned on board and the second carrying astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken. Both missions went well, paving the way for the first operational flight.