[ad_1]
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon “Resilience” spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket – 215 feet in length – are ready to deploy to Platform 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for the four astronaut launch on Saturday evening to the International Space Station.
These photos were taken inside SpaceX’s hangar at the southern perimeter of pad 39A. A transporter-assembler will transport the rocket up the ramp to the historic seaside launch pad, the same location where the Apollo 11 mission took off in 1969.
The Crew Dragon capsule, named Resilience, will take off during SpaceX’s operational crew’s first rotational flight to the International Space Station. The mission, named Crew-1, will deliver astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi to the outpost in orbit for a half-year expedition.
The capsule arrived at the hangar built on the southern perimeter of Station 39A last Thursday, November 5, to be integrated into its Falcon 9 launcher. These photos show the Crew Dragon spacecraft – measuring 8.1 meters high and about 4 feet tall. meters in diameter – inside the hangar mounted on SpaceX’s Strongback transporter for deployment to the launch pad.
The reflective solar panels mounted on the body of the capsule are easily recognizable in the pictures, along with its stabilization fins, which would aid the aerodynamics of the spacecraft in performing a launch interruption maneuver.
NASA’s “worm” logo on the upper stage of the Falcon 9. The worm badge was painted on the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket for the Crew Dragon Demo-2 test flight earlier this year.
Three other Falcon 9 first-stage boosters are pictured inside the hangar at pad 39A, all showing signs of previous space travel.
The fully assembled Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon capsule extends from tip to tail 215 feet (65 meters). The launch scheduled for Saturday at 7:49 p.m. EST (22:49 GMT) will mark the 98th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket since its launch on June 4, 2010.
Check out our Mission Status Center for continuous live coverage of the Crew-1 mission.
#SpaceX The Falcon 9 rocket is ready! It’s our rocket! pic.twitter.com/cfS9V7JxYb
– NOGUCHI, Soichi Satoshi Noguchi- (Soichi Noguchi) (@Astro_Soichi) November 9, 2020
See you soon at @NASA_TV for Crew-1 LIVE! 1315ET, 1215CT, 0215 JST! There will be an online press conference on NASA TV starting at 2:15 p.m. Japan time! Look on the net ♪ pic.twitter.com/K8KFEuEh11
– NOGUCHI, Soichi Satoshi Noguchi- (Soichi Noguchi) (@Astro_Soichi) November 9, 2020
Email the author.
Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.
[ad_2]
Source link