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On Sunday in Florida, a rocket and capsule built by SpaceX will transport crew members to the International Space Station. NASA’s mission follows a successful demonstration of the same spacecraft that launched in May and returned two astronauts to Earth in August. Here’s what you need to know about the launch.
What is SpaceX launching?
Four astronauts – three from NASA, one from JAXA, the Japanese space agency – will be seated inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, orbiting above a Falcon 9 rocket. Calls Crew-1 and the astronauts named their capsule Resilience. They are heading to the International Space Station for a six-month stay.
This is the first of what NASA calls the “operational” Crew Dragon flights. In May, there was a demonstration mission, with two NASA astronauts – Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley – on board. This launch, in a capsule named Endeavor, was the first time a crewed mission has taken off from the United States into orbit since the withdrawal of NASA space shuttles in 2011. Its return was also the first landing on the planet. water by astronauts aboard an American spacecraft. since Apollo capsules stopped flying in the 1970s.
NASA relied on Russian Soyuz rockets to bring its astronauts to the space station. It has gotten more and more expensive and costs over $ 90 million per seat.
When does the launch take place?
The Crew-1 mission is scheduled for Sunday at 7:27 p.m. EST from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA Television will broadcast coverage from 3:15 p.m.
Astronauts will arrive at the space station around 11 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, a journey of about 27 hours.
The forecast currently gives a 50% chance of getting favorable conditions at the launch pad. SpaceX and NASA are also watching farther into the Atlantic Ocean. The weather and the waters need to be calm enough in case something goes wrong during the ascent into orbit and the Crew Dragon needs to take an emergency dive (inclement weather conditions have led to the launch date being postponed for longer. early Saturday).
If Sunday’s launch is delayed, there is a Wednesday save opportunity.
Who are the astronauts?
Michael S. Hopkins, 51, a United States Space Force colonel, is the flight commander. (Colonel Hopkins is also the first member of the new US space force to go into space.) He was one of nine astronauts selected by NASA in 2009. He has previously made a trip to the International Space Station. , in 2013 and 2014, spend 166 days in orbit.
Shannon Walker, 55, previously visited the space station in 2010. Ms. Walker holds a doctorate in space physics from Rice University, where she studied how the solar wind interacts with the atmosphere of Venus.
Soichi Noguchi, 55, an astronaut from JAXA, the Japanese space agency, will make his third trip to space. He was a member of the Space Shuttle Discovery crew in 2005 when the shuttle first launched after the loss of Columbia and its seven astronauts more than two years earlier.
During this visit to the International Space Station, Mr. Noguchi conducted three spacewalks. This included one for testing techniques developed to repair damage to the heat tiles on the shuttle, similar to what had doomed Columbia when it returned to Earth’s atmosphere. In 2009 and 2010, he spent five months in orbit as a member of the space station crew.
Victor glover, 44, selected by NASA in 2013 to be an astronaut, will make his first space flight. He will be the first black NASA astronaut to serve on a space station crew. Mr. Glover’s feat is remarkable for NASA, which has worked to shed light on the “hidden figures” in its story, but has so far only sent 14 black Americans into space out of a total of over 300 NASA astronauts.
He won’t be the first black astronaut aboard the station. But those who brought him in from NASA were space shuttle crews during the station’s construction and only made brief stays at the outpost.
Allyson Waller contributed reporting.
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