NASA / SpaceX Crew-1 launch to ISS

[docmordrid]

Crew Dragon's first operational mission after receiving it's Human Rating from NASA.

Crew

Commander: Michael S. Hopkins, NASA
Pilot: Victor J. Glover, NASA
Mission Specialist 1: Soichi Noguchi, JAXA (Japan)
Mission Specialist 2: Shannon Walker, NASA

Vehicle: Dragon C207 "Resilience"

Date: Sunday November 15, 2020
Time: 1927 Eastern (0027 UT)

NASA/SpaceX live stream
https://youtu.be/E_FIaPBOJgc

SpaceX's Benji Reed at the Flight Readiness Review (FRR),

Over the next 15 months, we will fly seven Crew and Cargo Dragon missions for NASA. That means that starting with Crew-1, there will be a continuous presence of SpaceX Dragons on orbit. Starting with the cargo mission CRS-21, every time we launch a Dragon, there will be two Dragons in space – simultaneously – for extended periods of time. Truly, we are returning the United States’ capability for full launch services and we are very, very honored to be a part of that.

Private commercial Crew Dragon missions begin in late 2021 with the Axiom Space Ax-1 mission to ISS. Axiom is building their own commercial ISS module then, after a few years at ISS, Axiom will detach it to become a free flying commercial space station.

[Trebuchet]

Per SpaceX Twitter, weather is 50/50 for this afternoon.

[Selenite]

Second star to the right and straight on to morning. Godspeed.

[docmordrid]

SpaceX Crew-1 stream

https://youtu.be/bnChQbxLkkI

[docmordrid]

Streams are live

The plan for Crew-2 is March 30, 2021 at 0046;36 Eastern. It'll re-use the DM-2 'Endeavour' spacecraft and F9 booster from today's Crew-1.

[docmordrid]

GO for launch

Propellant loading

[docmordrid]

Weather now 80%

[docmordrid]

Crew Access Arm retracting

SuperDraco escape system armed

[docmordrid]

Hopkins: "Crew One For All"

[docmordrid]

LIFTOFF!

Godspeed Crew-1

[Van Rijn]

Nominal orbit insertion, first stage landed, capsule separated from second stage.

[Van Rijn]

Isn’t this the largest crew launched to orbit (4) since the Space Shuttle? (Which typically could have five to seven).

[Selenite]

Mission seems to be by the numbers so far.

[selvaarchi]

They are in orbit.

Dragon separation confirmed! The Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft is now flying free of the Falcon 9’s upper stage in orbit.

[Jens]

And the first stage landed.

[schlaugh]

Isn’t this the largest crew launched to orbit (4) since the Space Shuttle? (Which typically could have five to seven).

Yes. A bit of history tonight; first time more than three people were launched in a capsule.

[Van Rijn]

Yes. A bit of history tonight; first time more than three people were launched in a capsule.

Good point. Ah, this makes me happy. I was just a little concerned since I didn’t want to see any problems for the first post test crew flight. WE ARE BACK!

[docmordrid]

Glorious

[docmordrid]

They had some thermal control loop and a thruster pod manifold heater problem, but worked through them. The thermal loop was reset to a previous configuration, and the thruster quad is now behaving. Onward...

[KaiYeves]

Enjoyed watching with my family.

They really need to get a new Astrovan, watching them ride to the launchpad in normal cars just looks bland.

[docmordrid]

Enjoyed watching with my family.

They really need to get a new Astrovan, watching them ride to the launchpad in normal cars just looks bland.

Well, some would quibble customized Tesla Model X's aren't exactly "normal cars"

Gwynne Shotwell,

5 Crew Dragons: Endeavour (Dragon C206), Resilience (Dragon C207), and three more to be named.

3 Cargo Dragons: the first flies December 2 for CRS-21.

[docmordrid]

Continuing coverage. Crew wakes up about 1200 Eastern.

https://youtu.be/LtqMdKyk0NA

[KaiYeves]

Well, some would quibble customized Tesla Model X's aren't exactly "normal cars"

“Normal” in the sense that I can see them on the street in major cities (and I have in New York and DC) without the NASA paint job.

[Garrison]

Crew is awake again, cool to see Resilience did a couple of automated course corrections without waking anyone up.

[docmordrid]

During a presser NASA's Kathy Lueders, head of Commercial Crew, said during this mission Crew Dragon will not only serve as a lifeboat but also as a habitation module.

Take a break, use the vehicle's bathroom, sleep, whatever. Given the screens run on Chromium I wouldn't be surprised if some of Tesla's embedded video games are in there.

[Kay Burton]

This is fantastic! New technologies allow launches to be carried out more and more often, and if, in fact, the launch is on a clear schedule so that astronaut teams can go into low-Earth orbit. Perhaps in a few years there will also be a landing on the Moon. It would be cool to see such footage.

[docmordrid]

This is fantastic! New technologies allow launches to be carried out more and more often, and if, in fact, the launch is on a clear schedule so that astronaut teams can go into low-Earth orbit. Perhaps in a few years there will also be a landing on the Moon. It would be cool to see such footage.

Crew Dragon is the least of it. Dragon has about 9.3 cubic meters of pressurized volume, about the same as a Ford Transit L2H2 cargo van (9.5 m3). Their Starship vehicle, now undergoing early flight tests, will have 1,100 cubic meters - about the same as an Airbus A380's main deck. A multi-purpose vehicle it's intended to do suborbital point-to-point on Earth, or do deep space missions as far out as the Moon, Mars, or the moons of Jupiter.

[publiusr]

Dragon may still have a use...I was thinking about how agile Dragon could be if launched by Falcon Heavy with an all hypergolic second stage/ service module. That could go back and forth from ISS to other yet to fly assets.

[docmordrid]

Dragon may still have a use...I was thinking about how agile Dragon could be if launched by Falcon Heavy with an all hypergolic second stage/ service module. That could go back and forth from ISS to other yet to fly assets.

Agreed. IMO it wouldn't take much to turn Dragon into an Orion-killer at half the mass and a tiny fraction of the per-mission cost. Not doing this has been more political pork and sunk-cost fallacy than technical issues (Musk's merry band of pirates are great at solving those).