Meet SpaceX's Crew-1 Astronauts who will launch aboard Crew Dragon on Sunday –Watch It Live!

NASA and SpaceX target to launch Crew-1 astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) at 7:27 p.m. EST Sunday, November 15. The mission will be SpaceX's first operational flight featuring an international crew under the agency's Commercial Crew Program, which aims to launch astronauts regularly from American soil. Crew-1 members are three NASA astronauts and one Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut. The four astronauts that will be launched atop SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket aboard the Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft tomorrow evening are: Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, and Michael Hopkins who are flying for NASA and Soichi Noguchi who works for JAXA. They will be part of Expedition 64, tasked with conducting science research at ISS.

All Images Source: NASA / SpaceX

NASA will provide continuous coverage of the Crew-1 mission starting Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The Live broadcast will be over 30 hours long. You can watch the historic mission in the video below. Crew Dragon Resilience is scheduled to dock to the orbiting laboratory's module at around 11:00 p.m. EST on Monday, November 16.

NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 crew shared their personal goals for the mission.@Astro_illini: Land safely and return to our families@AstroVicGlover: Take a lot of pictures

S. Walker: Accomplish our work & have fun doing it@Astro_Soichi: Enjoy every moment, return home with a smile pic.twitter.com/Uq9GhOzZyd

— Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) November 14, 2020

NASA Astronaut Victor Glover, Crew-1 Pilot

Everyone is a veteran astronaut with experience living and working in microgravity -- except NASA Astronaut Victor Glover, it will be his first voyage to space. Glover will make history as the first African American Navy Commander Pilot to launch aboard Crew Dragon and live at the space station for an extended period to perform science research. "... I try to stay away from the bittersweet discussion of being the first Black astronaut assigned to a long-duration mission on the space station," he told reporters earlier this month, "I want to go do it first, I want to go do my job, and so I think the best thing that I can do, better than anything I could say, is to go do my job and do it well, and then come back and tell people about it. And I think this job, by its very nature, is inspirational and hopefully gives people something to unify around and celebrate together. [...]" Glover has over 3,000 hours of flying experience on more than 40 different aircraft, has experience in 400 carrier landings, and 24 combat missions. He will serve as Crew-1 mission pilot for SpaceX's Crew Dragon 'Resilience' spacecraft. Besides serving the Navy, Glover worked as a Legislative Fellow in the United States Senate.

NASA Astronaut Shannon Walker, Crew-1 Mission Specialist

During the Crew-1 mission, NASA Astronaut Walker will serve as Mission Specialist. She will make history as the first woman to fly aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket. Walker is a veteran astronaut hired by NASA in 1995. In 2010, she spent a total of 163 days aboard the orbiting space station during Expeditions 24 and 25. Where Walker conducted more than 130 micro-gravity experiments ranging from research in biology and biotechnology to technology development in Earth and space sciences. Astronaut Walker also conducted three extravehicular activity missions, spacewalks, in which she was tasked to remove and replace a failed pump module outside the station. Shannon told reporters she looks forward to the day women flying to space becomes routine aboard commerciaal spacecraft that gender will not be mentioned. "To be honest, I haven't really put much thought into the fact that I am the first woman on a commercial vehicle. I expect to be the first of many, and look forward to the day that we don't have to note such events," Walker told Business Insider reporters this week.

NASA Astronaut Michael Hopkins, Crew-1 Commander

NASA Astronaut Micheal Hopkins will serve as Crew-1 Mission Commander. Hopkins is a Colonel in the Air Force, where he was a flight test engineer before being selected as a NASA astronaut in 2009. He’s spent 166 days on the International Space Station for Expeditions 37/38, and conducted two spacewalks. Sunday's mission will be Hopkins's second voyage to space.

During the six-month-long Crew-1 mission, Crew Dragon Resilience will remain attached to ISS, Hopkins will sleep inside the spacecraft because the space station currently does not have enough sleeping quarters to accomodate the crew of four. Regarding the Crew-1 mission Hopkins stated --"I hope people realize this isn’t just another launch, it is something a lot bigger," Hopkins, said in a NASA press release. "Hopefully it’s setting the stage, one of those first steps to getting us to the Moon and on to Mars."

JAXA Astronaut Soichi Noguchi, Crew-1 Mission Specialist

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi will also be a mission specialist during SpaceX’s upcoming Crew Dragon mission. Noguchi is a Japanese aeronautical engineer; He is the fifth astronaut in Japan to go to space. His first spaceflight was as a Mission Specialist aboard a Space Shuttle for NASA on July 2005. In 2009 he was launched to orbit by Russia's Soyuz spacecraft and worked at the International Space Station as part of Expedition 22. Noguchi looks forward to now launching aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft. For the Crew-1 mission Noguchi shared he will "Enjoy every moment, return home with a smile."

Crew-1 Mission Broadcast Schedule 

Sunday, Nov. 15 [Eastern Time] 

3:15 p.m. EST – NASA Television launch coverage begins. NASA Television will have continuous coverage, including docking, hatch opening, and welcome ceremony, with a news conference following docking activities.

9 p.m. (approximately) – Postlaunch news conference with the following participants:

• NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine
• Kathy Lueders, associate administrator for human exploration and operations, NASA Headquarters
• Hiroshi Sasaki, vice president and director general, JAXA’s Human Spaceflight Technology Directorate
• SpaceX representative

Monday, Nov. 16

11 p.m. EST – Crew Dragon Resilience Docking to the Space Station

Tuesday, Nov. 17

1:40 a.m. EST (approximately) – Welcome Ceremony from the International Space Station with the following participants:

• ·Kathy Lueders, associate administrator for human exploration and operations, NASA Headquarters
• JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa

2 a.m. (approximately – immediately following Welcome Ceremony) – Post-Docking News Conference with the following participants:

• Kathy Lueders, associate administrator for human exploration and operations, NASA Headquarters
• Mark Geyer, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston
• Ven Feng, deputy manager, Commercial Crew Program, Johnson
• Joel Montalbano, manager, International Space Station, Johnson

Thursday, Nov. 19

(Time Pending) – International Space Station News Conference from Johnson with the following Expedition 64 crew members:

• NASA astronaut Kate Rubins
• NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins
• NASA astronaut Victor Glover
• NASA astronaut Shannon Walker
• JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi