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Resilience takes off en route to the International Space Station
NASA
Resilience is on its way to the International Space Station.
At exactly 7:27 p.m. ET, a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster came to life at Launch Complex 39A, its engines lighting up the Florida coast. The perfect launch of the gum drop-shaped Crew Dragon spacecraft – dubbed Resilience – Marks a historic moment in the history of American spaceflight.
“By working together during these trying times, you have inspired the nation, the world and, in large part, the name of this incredible vehicle, Resilience,” said Michael Hopkins, Commander of the Crew-1 spacecraft.
And resilience is also a theme of the launch. It’s not since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011 that NASA has sent humans into orbit from American soil on an operational mission. The launch of this particular mission has been delayed, postponed and postponed several times – the original schedule called for a launch date of November 2016. Four years and some technical stumbles later, Resilience is in flight.
The Crew Dragon contains an international assembly of astronauts: Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker of NASA, as well as Soichi Noguchi of the Japanese space agency JAXA. The team is expected to spend the next six months on the International Space Station.
“It’s a big day for the United States of America and a big day for Japan,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said at a post-launch conference. “The big milestone here is that we are now moving away from development and testing to operational flights.”
“I look forward to embracing the new era and moving forward together for the future,” said Hiroshi Sasaki, vice president of JAXA.
Just under 10 minutes after launch, the first Falcon 9 booster landed safely on the Just Read The Instructions droneship stationed in the Atlantic. This was the first time the reusable rocket has been used in a mission and the plan is to reuse it on the Crew Dragon’s next operational flight, SpaceX’s Crew-2.
The launch of Crew-2 is scheduled for March 2021 and will once again carry four astronauts. It will reuse the Crew Dragon Endeavor, which was first used in the SpaceX Demo-2 mission in May.
Through the smoke, the Falcon 9’s first stage on the droneship in the Atlantic.
NASA
Soon after, at around 12 minutes, Resilience broke away from the second stage and got underway. The spacecraft will now track the ISS and dock at the station on November 16 at around 11 p.m. ET.
This isn’t the first time that a Falcon 9 rocket has sent a Crew Dragon spacecraft into space. In May, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley were the first two humans to be transported to orbit via SpaceX’s workhorse rocket. But it was a test mission, the last checkbox before the official start of operations for the NASA Commercial Crew Program.
Crew-1 signals the return of operational flights to American soil and the CCP’s first flight. Until today, NASA bought flights on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Flying SpaceX, NASA will save around $ 25 million per seat.
NASA also hired Boeing to deliver astronauts to the ISS, but the company’s crewed spacecraft, Starliner, encountered technical issues during its first unequipped demo launch.
You can watch the replay of the launch below.
This story is updated live.
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