SpaceX launch: four astronauts take off aboard Crew Dragon to the ISS

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NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi, a Japanese space agency astronaut, are now in orbit, aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule scheduled to dock with the ISS on Monday at 11 p.m. ET. This means the crew will spend 27 hours in orbit as the spacecraft slowly makes its way to its destination.
The trip would have been shorter if the Crew Dragon had been able to launch on Saturday, as NASA had originally planned, as the ISS would have aligned in such a way as to allow the spacecraft to reach the space station in about eight hours. But bad weather brought on by Hurricane Eta forced launch officials to delay take-off until Sunday evening.

The capsule has a working toilet and astronauts will have time to sleep while the fully autonomous vehicle maneuvers in orbit while SpaceX and NASA officials in Houston, Texas, and Hawthorne, Calif., watch over the trip.

This is a historic mission for NASA and the company, as it is the first fully operational crewed mission for SpaceX, following a test mission in May that carried NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken, both test pilots, to the space station.

But this mission is not a test: SpaceX’s Crew Dragon was officially certified as a people-carrying spacecraft last week, paving the way for a relatively routine journey, carrying astronauts from diverse backgrounds.

For this mission, for example, Walker and Noguchi have a background in physics. The Crew-1 team are expected to conduct all kinds of experiments during their six-month stay on the ISS, including research into how microgravity affects human heart tissue. They will also try to grow radishes in space to build on studies designed to determine how food might be grown to support deep space exploration missions.

Sunday’s mission had been briefly questioned after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealed on Twitter that he was exhibiting symptoms and was being tested for Covid-19, prompting NASA to conduct a contact tracing effort to ensure that no personnel essential to the launch could have been exposed.

Elon Musk could have Covid-19 and should be quarantined when SpaceX astronaut launches on Sunday, according to NASA
Officials said the effort was over by Friday evening and they had no reason to be concerned. Musk said Saturday that he “very likely” had a “moderate case of covid.”
The United States spent nearly a decade without the ability to launch astronauts into space following the withdrawal from the Space Shuttle program in 2011, and NASA was forced to rely on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to bring astronauts at the ISS, which the space agency says left the multibillion-dollar orbiting Laboratory understaffed. As many as 13 astronauts were on board at the same time in 2009. That number has sometimes dropped to three on multiple occasions, leaving fewer people to help run experiments and help keep the space station well maintained. With this launch, it will drop to seven.

SpaceX developed the Crew Dragon capsule as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program, which, for the first time in the history of the space agency, entrusted much of the design, development, and testing of new human-class spacecraft to the private sector. NASA awarded SpaceX and Boeing fixed-price contracts worth $ 2.6 billion and $ 4.2 billion, respectively, to do the job. Development of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft still delayed due to major software issues detected during a test mission last year, but officials say the vehicle could be in service next year.

Because these vehicles will technically be owned by SpaceX and Boeing, with NASA serving as a client that purchases missions for astronauts, companies will also be able to use their vehicles to transport tourists, private researchers, or anyone else who can afford 50 million. of dollars. more ticket.

This decision was not without controversy, especially at the start of the Commercial Crew program. But Crew Dragon’s success could be seen as a huge victory for the folks at NASA who are hoping to build on this style of contract more broadly to help meet the space agency’s goals.



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