SpaceX and NASA will be attempting to Dock 4 astronauts to the International Space Station LIVE onboard their falcon 9 rocket.

Tune in live as the Crew Dragon "Resilience" spacecraft docks to the International Space Station with astronauts Michael Hopkins, Shannon Walker, and Victor Glover of NASA and Soichi Noguchi of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) aboard. The four astronauts will begin a six-month science mission on the station. Docking is scheduled at 11 p.m. EST (4 a.m. UTC), Monday, Nov. 16 followed by the hatch opening at 1:10 a.m. EST (6:30 a.m. UTC), and a welcome ceremony at 1:40 a.m. EST (6:40 a.m. UTC) Tuesday, Nov. 17.


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SpaceX and NASA are targeting Sunday, November 15 for Falcon 9’s launch of Dragon’s first operational crew mission (Crew-1) to the International Space Station (ISS) from historic Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The instantaneous launch window opens at 7:27 p.m. EST on November 15, 00:27 UTC on November 16. Following stage separation, SpaceX will attempt to land Falcon 9’s first stage on the “Just Read the Instructions” droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. The launch webcast will go live about 4 hours before liftoff. Tune in here to watch live.

As part of the Commercial Crew Program, NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi will fly aboard Dragon on its first six-month operational mission to the ISS.

Following Dragon’s second demonstration mission (Demo-2), NASA certified SpaceX for operational crew missions to and from the space station. Crew-1 is the first of three scheduled Dragon flights over the course of 2020 and 2021.

The return of human spaceflight to the United States with one of the safest, most advanced systems ever built is a turning point for America’s future space exploration, and it lays the groundwork for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

On November 15, a SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket will lift off from LC-39A, at the Kennedy Space Center, carrying three NASA astronauts and one JAXA astronaut to the ISS. This mission, Crew-1 (USCV-1), will mark SpaceX’s first operational crewed launch as part of the Commercial Crew Program.

Crew-1, or USCV-1, will mark the first regular crew rotation mission that is launched on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon will carry four astronauts to the International Space Station for their six months stay. This launch will bump up the number of crew on the ISS to seven. They will join NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov on November 15, just 8.5 hours after launch.

The crew supporting this mission is composed of three NASA astronauts and one JAXA astronaut. Commander: NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins ,Pilot: NASA astronaut Victor Glover, Mission Specialist: NASA astronaut Shannon Walker, Mission Specialist: JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi

Resilience will feature some minor tweaks and changes to some of its systems when compared to C206 Endeavour. Crew Dragon Endeavour previously supported SpaceX’s Demonstration Mission 2 (DM-2) with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken. After its splashdown on August 2, 2020, SpaceX’s teams found some unexpected erosion on the heat shield and some minor irregularities during parachute deployment. While these irregularities where still inside their safety margins, SpaceX improved their systems. Resilience will feature a redesigned heat shield in the area of question and improved barometric sensors.

Falcon 9 Block 5 is SpaceX’s partially reusable two-stage medium-lift launch vehicle. Block 5 is the final iteration of the Falcon 9. The goal is to apply all the lessons learned from 56 previous Falcon 9 pre-Block 5 flights into a human-rated reusable rocket. The Falcon 9 contains three main components: a reusable first stage, an expendable second stage, and, depending on the mission, a reusable fairing or a Dragon spacecraft.

Its first stage is powered by 9 Merlin 1D engines, while its second stage is only powered by one vacuum optimized Merlin engine. Both the first and the second stage are running on Keralox (RP-1 and LOx).

#NASA #SpaceX