SpaceX launches 4 astronauts on the space station, ushering in a new era for NASA

Lighting the night sky, four astronauts orbiting atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday for a 27-hour journey to the International Space Station in the first operational flight of a commercially developed Crew Dragon capsule.

Highlighting NASA’s current desire to end its sole reliance on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, the Falcon 9’s first stage engines ignited with a torrent of flaming exhaust at 7:27 p.m., pushing the rocket out 229 feet high away from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. atop 1.7 million pounds of thrust.

Commander Michael Hopkins, pilot Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, strapped to the capsule they named “Resilience”, monitored the ascent on large touch screens as the rocket accelerated rapidly, heading northeast over the Atlantic Ocean. .

NASA and SpaceX ruled out a launch test on Saturday due to high winds expected on Florida’s space coast and rough seas that prevented a SpaceX recall recovery ship from reaching its off-shore station in time .

Weather ashore was a problem most of the time, say Sunday, but ominous clouds and rain did not materialize and after last minute work to close the Crew Dragon’s hatch, the Falcon 9 was been cleared for take-off, delighting thousands of area residents. and tourists lining the region’s roads and beaches amid warnings from NASA to follow coronavirus protocols.

Vice President Mike Pence, Chairman of the National Space Council, flew to witness the historic launch from the top deck of a NASA office complex a few miles from the launch pad.

And the Falcon 9 didn’t disappoint, crossing the night sky dragging a long, flaming exhaust jet visible for miles around. Within a minute the rocket was traveling faster than sound and a minute and a half later, now well out of the thick lower atmosphere, the engines shut down as expected.

The reusable first stage, making its maiden flight, then fell and headed for landing on a SpaceX droneship parked due east of the Carolinas while the second stage, powered by a single empty engine, continued to climb. orbit.

Eight minutes and 50 seconds after takeoff, the second-stage engine shut down, putting Hopkins and his teammates into a preliminary orbit. Forty seconds later, the first leg landed safely, marking SpaceX’s 65th recall recovery, its 45th at sea.

Recovering the first stage was a major focus of the launch as SpaceX plans to refurbish the rocket and use it for the next Crew Dragon launch in late March.

Either way, with the booster safe, the Crew Dragon capsule was freed from the Falcon 9’s second stage a few minutes later to move forward with a complex series of automated thruster shots to refine the approach to the spaceship to the space station.

At the time of launch, the station was sailing 259 miles over northern Syria. It will take 27 and a half hours for the Crew Dragon to precisely match the orbits with the lab complex, reaching about 20 miles by 8 p.m. Monday.

If all goes well, the spacecraft will pass approximately 1,300 feet below the station before buckling to a point approximately 720 feet directly in front of the outpost.

From there, the Crew Dragon’s flight computer will guide the ship to docking at the station’s forward port, the same once used by visiting space shuttles, on Monday at 11 p.m., as the two spacecraft pass overhead. from the west coast of the United States.

It will be a kind of long-awaited homecoming for Hopkins, Walker and Noguchi. All three are veterans of previous long-term expeditions. Glover, a Navy F / A-18 pilot turned astronaut, makes his first space flight. He is the first African American to be assigned to a full-time station crew.

Expedition 64 Commander Sergey Ryzhikov, Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins will be standing to greet Crew 1 astronauts aboard the station. Rubins used the last Soyuz seat currently under NASA contract when she and her two teammates took off on October 14 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard the Soyuz MS-17 / 63S spacecraft.

“It will be great to see the Crew-1 crew go through this hatch, and we will certainly welcome them on board, because with more crew members, we can spend a lot more time doing science research and experiments,” Rubins said ahead of launch.

“There is a certain amount of time that we have to devote to just maintaining the station, and with only one or two US and international partner crew members, it’s hard to get all the science we want to do. So having all these extra crews there means we can accomplish this much more scientifically. “

Since 2006, NASA has spent $ 4 billion to purchase some 71 seats aboard the Soyuz spacecraft to transport American, European, Canadian and Japanese astronauts to and from the station. The Rubins headquarters, the last NASA plans to buy, cost $ 90 million.

While the Crew Dragon and possibly Boeing CST-100 Starliner Spaceship will end NASA’s sole dependence on Russia, it does not mean the end of joint flights.

NASA still plans to launch astronauts aboard the Soyuz spacecraft for the duration of the station’s program as protection against emergencies such as serious illness, for example, which could result in the premature departure of a ship from American or Russian crew.

Mixed crews would ensure at least one astronaut or cosmonaut aboard the station at all times, regardless of the sudden departure of a Soyuz or commercial crew vessel, to operate their country’s systems.

But these mixed flights, including the possible launch of Russian cosmonauts aboard the new American spacecraft, will be covered by barter deals, not direct cash payments. NASA will continue to pay for seats aboard an American spacecraft – the cost is not yet known – but that money will be spent in the United States.