NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission astronauts embarked on a long duration voyage to the International Space Station (ISS). On Sunday, November 15, at 7:27 p.m. EST. Crew-1 lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket aboard the Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft from Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It is SpaceX's second crewed mission, as well as the second astronaut flight launched from American soil since 2011. "The mission is the first of six certified, crew missions NASA and SpaceX will fly as a part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program," the agency states. SpaceX officially returned human spaceflight capabilities to the United States.
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/Unf1ScdVFB
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 16, 2020
Crew-1 astronauts docked to the space station after a historic ~27 hour voyage. They arrived to the orbiting laboratory on Monday, November 16. The Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft successfully docked to the Space Station's Harmony module at 11:01 p.m. EST, carrying NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi. Crew Dragon features the capability to dock autonomously to the station's module. --"SpaceX, this is Resilience. Excellent job, right down the center," Hopkins told mission control after the docking. "SpaceX and NASA, Congratulations! This is a new era of operational flight to the International Space Station from the Florida coast," he said.
The four @Commercial_Crew astronauts are suited up, the @SpaceX #CrewDragon nose cone is open and they are closing in for an 11pm ET docking. https://t.co/yuOTrZ4Jut pic.twitter.com/UBvM5R6yCe
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) November 17, 2020
The astronauts are scheduled to open the spacecraft's hatch to go inside ISS on Tuesday, November 17, at approximately at 1:10 a.m. EST. "The Crew-1 astronauts will join Expedition 64 Flight Engineer Kate Rubins of NASA, and station Commander Sergey Ryzhikov and Flight Engineer Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos, who arrived to the station Oct. 14." Crew-1 will be part of Expedition 64, they will stay at ISS for six months where they will work on a variety of science research.
"Docking sequence is complete." @Astro_Illini, @Astro_Soichi and #AstroKate make statements after a successful docking to the station. https://t.co/yuOTrZ4Jut pic.twitter.com/sOzlZe1Vor
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) November 17, 2020
The agency will host a Welcome ceremony for Crew-1 astronauts at 1:40 a.m. EST. with NASA’s Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Kathy Lueders, who will greet the crew from the NASA’s Johnson Space Center Mission Control in Houston, Texas. JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa will also greet the astronauts at the space station from the Tsukuba Space Center in Japan.
NASA will also host a press conference to discuss the successful Crew-1 mission at around 2:00 a.m. Eastern Time. You can watch continuous coverage via NASA TV, linked in the video below.
WATCH IT LIVE!
NASA BROADCAST SCHEDULE
Nov. 17, Tuesday
1:40 a.m. EST - Welcoming Ceremony for the SpaceX “Resilience” Crew Dragon Crew-1 Crew at the International Space Station (Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, Soichi Noguchi) - Hawthorne, Calif./Johnson Space Center
2 a.m. (approximately) - SpaceX Crew-1 Mission post-docking news conference with senior NASA and JAXA officials
About the Author
Evelyn Arevalo
Evelyn J. Arevalo joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover news as a Space Journalist and SpaceX Starbase Texas Correspondent. Evelyn is specialized in rocketry and space exploration. The main topics she covers are SpaceX and NASA.
