NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Operational with Liftoff of Crew-1
By Bob Granath
The skies over Florida’s Space Coast lit up as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocketed from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center sending four astronauts to the International Space Station. After they arrive, the orbiting laboratory will be staffed, for the first time, by seven astronauts and cosmonauts increasing the amount of time available for research and additional opportunities for discoveries.
The Crew-1 mission lifted off from the spaceport’s Launch Complex 39A at 7:27 p.m. EST on Nov. 15, 2020 with NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, along with Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA. A major step for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, long-duration commercial crew rotation missions will enable NASA to continue the important research and technology investigations taking place onboard the station.
About ten minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 first stage returned to Earth landing off shore on the SpaceX drone ship, Of Course I Still Love You. Plans call for it bo be reused to launch Crew-2 next year.
Liftoff of the Crew-1 mission marks the 26th launch this year from the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The fact underscores the site’s role as the world’s premier, multi-user spaceport.
Read more about the Crew-1 astronauts
“We are taking another big leap in this transformation in how we do human spaceflight,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine during a pre-flight news conference. “What we’re talking about here is the commercialization of space. NASA is one customer of many customers in a very robust commercial marketplace in low-Earth orbit. We’re transitioning from test flights to operational flights. Make no mistake, every flight is a test flight when it comes to space travel, but it’s also true that we need to routinely be able to go to the International Space Station.”
In a major milestone for NASA, the Crew Dragon, including the Falcon 9 rocket and associated ground systems, were formally certified for regular flights with astronauts on Nov. 10 following grounds tests, simulations, uncrewed flight tests and NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 test flight with astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken earlier this year. The SpaceX Crew Dragon is the first new human-rated spacecraft to be certified by NASA since the Space Shuttle nearly 40 years ago.
“Today’s signing is about the people across NASA, SpaceX and other groups that came together to complete an unbelievable amount of hard work to accomplish this task,” said Kathy Lueders, associate administrator for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operation Mission Directorate. “Certification moves us from the design and test phase into the crew rotation phase of our work, but we will not stop making sure every flight, including NASA’s Space Crew-1 mission, will be approached with the same rigor we have put into making this the best system it can be for our astronauts.”
Crew-1 Astronauts Arrive in Florida
The Crew-1 astronauts arrived at Kennedy’s Launch and Landing Facility on Nov. 8 and were greeted by Bridenstine, NASA Deputy Administrator Jim Morhard, Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana and JAXA International Space Station Program Manager Junichi Sakai.
In welcoming the crew after their crew’s arrival from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Cabana spoke of the role of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
“This whole effort to commercialize low-Earth orbit – this is just a giant step in making that happen,” said Cabana, a former Space Shuttle astronaut. “It is really exciting. I can’t tell you how great it is to be able to welcome a crew here to go to space again. I envy each and every one of you,”
“I believe the Crew-1 mission opens up a new era of low-Earth orbit commercialization,” Sakai added. “I’m honored to be able to witness this great event, and I’m proud that a Japanese astronaut, Dr. Noguchi, is carrying responsibility as a member of this event.”
Later that day the crew visited the SpaceX Horizontal Integration Facility at Launch Complex 39A and had an opportunity to inspect their Crew Dragon spacecraft. The capsule, which the crew named “Resilience,” was moved to the building at the foot of the launch pad on Nov. 5, after making the trek from its processing facility at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. On Nov. 12, the crew participated in a countdown dress rehearsal of the launch day events.
Mission commander Hopkins said, “We’re ready.”
“On behalf of the crew of Resilience, on behalf of our families, we want to say a big ‘thank you’ to all of the people at SpaceX, at NASA, and in the (Department of Defense) who have been working tirelessly to get us to this point,” said Hopkins upon the crew’s arrival. “It’s really been an incredible effort by an incredible group of people.”
After launch, the spacecraft will perform a series of maneuvers competing rendezvous and docking with the space station orbiting 254 miles above the Earth. Upon their arrival, the Crew-1 astronauts will become members of Expedition 64, joining NASA astronaut and Expedition 64 flight engineer Kate Rubins, as well as the expedition’s commander Sergey Ryzhikov and flight engineer Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, both of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.
Radishes Grown in Space
The Crew-1 astronauts will spend their time aboard the International Space Station conducting scientific research in areas, such as botany, cancer research and technology. Radishes are a model plant that is nutritious, grows quickly and is genetically similar to Arabidopsis, a plant frequently studied in microgravity. Results of the research could help improve growth of the plants in space improving their nutrition and taste. This will be a necessity for long flights of a year or more when astronauts travel to Mars.
Scientists also are using the microgravity environment of low-Earth orbit to tests drugs based on messenger ribonucleic acids for treating patients with leukemia.
During their stay on the orbiting laboratory, astronauts of Crew-1 will see a range of unpiloted spacecraft including the Northrop Grumman Cygnus, the next generation of SpaceX cargo Dragon spacecraft and the Boeing CST-100 Starliner on its uncrewed Orbital Flight Test-2 launched to the station.
Plans call for the Crew-1 astronauts to remain in space for about 180 days, returning to Earth around June 2021. Resilience is expected to splash down just off the coast of Florida and will be picked up by a SpaceX recovery vessel. The astronauts then will be transported to shore to board a plane for return to Houston.
For the past 20 years, astronauts from around the world have continuously lived and worked aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies that enable us to prepare for human exploration to the Moon and Mars.
SpaceX Chief Engineer Elon Musk believes certification of his company’s Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 system will help NASA achieve the goal of not only commercialization of low-Earth orbit, but exploration beyond.
“Thank you to NASA for their continued support of SpaceX and partnership in achieving this goal,” Musk said. “I could not be more proud of everyone at SpaceX and all of our suppliers who worked incredibly hard to develop, test, and fly the first commercial human spaceflight system in history to be certified by NASA. This is a great honor that inspires confidence in our endeavor to return to the Moon, travel to Mars, and ultimately help humanity become multi-planetary.”
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Crew-1 Astronauts Head for Rendezvous with Space Station
Check out this short NASA video of the liftoff of astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon launched by one of the company’s Falcon 9 rockets on Nov. 15, 2020. Video courtesy of NASA