SpaceX will seek to make International Space Station astronaut transfer a normal part of NASA operations with the Crew-1 mission, its first crew rotation flight, scheduled for 4:27 p.m. local time today.
The launch was originally scheduled for Saturday but was pushed back due to onshore winds and potential problems with recovery operations.
SpaceX’s groundbreaking Demo-2 mission delivered two NASA astronauts safely to the ISS in May. It marked the first time that actual humans tested out Crew Dragon. Crew-1 will follow in the footsteps of that successful mission with a launch on a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Crew-1 will carry Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker of NASA, plus Soichi Noguchi of Japanese space agency JAXA, to the station for a six-month stay. The crew named the spacecraft “Resilience.”
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, which was used to launch the Dragon capsule, was tested during launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
NASA will livestream the launch and will provide continuous coverage of the mission, including docking, the hatch opening and the welcome ceremony, at nasa.gov.
— Mitchell White
