SpaceX will shoot four astronauts towards the International Space Station on Friday morning.
The company’s Crew Dragon spaceship is the first and only utility vehicle to transport humans into space. It is now a cornerstone of NASA’s manned space flight program.
Friday’s mission, dubbed Crew-2, is SpaceX’s second routine astronaut flight for NASA. The agency has contracted a total of six Crew Dragon missions. The first, Crew-1, is still on the ISS. Those astronauts will welcome the four newcomers: Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur from NASA, Akihiko Hoshide from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Thomas Pesquet from the European Space Agency.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket takes off from Launch Complex 39-A at Kennedy Space Center.
Joe Burbank / Orlando Sentinel / Tribune News Service via Getty Images
“We want this to be a normal way to get to the space station, which means, I don’t know, maybe hundreds of launches down the line,” Pesquet said at a news conference in March.
The astronauts will climb a launch tower to the top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, climb aboard the Crew Dragon capsule attached to the top, and then roar into space on Friday at 5:49 AM ET.
“We are ready and we are excited to fly,” McArthur said at the press conference.
Watch the historic space flight on NASA’s live stream below.
Watch SpaceX’s recycled Crew Dragon Endeavor fly back into space
The Resilience Capsule is approaching the International Space Station to dock on November 16, 2020.
NASA
NASA will kick off live with the Crew-2 launch on Friday at 1:30 a.m. ET as the astronauts don their SpaceX spacesuits. Afterwards, the astronauts will say goodbye to their families, ride to the launch pad in a pair of modified Teslas, climb the launch tower, and climb aboard Crew Dragon.
With the astronauts strapped and the spaceship’s hatch closed, the rocket is charged with cryogenically cooled propellant. If all goes well, it should roar past the launch pad, toward space at 5:49 a.m. ET.
NASA TV has live coverage of the preparations, launch countdown and launch:
This particular Crew Dragon capsule, dubbed Endeavor, is the same one that flew the first commercial space flight last year, carrying NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the ISS for a demonstration mission. The capsule has since been refurbished and upgraded.
McArthur will pilot the spaceship, just like Behnken (her husband) did last summer.
“I’m going to launch in the same chair. So that’s kind of nice that we can share, you know, I can tease him and say, ‘Hey, can you hand over the keys? I’m ready now. To go,” said McArthur recently in a press call.
The Falcon 9 booster, which is also reusable, is the same one that Crew-1 launched in November.
Friday’s launch was originally scheduled for Thursday morning, but NASA has rescheduled the schedule due to an unfavorable weather forecast. If the weather prevents the flight again on Friday, the agency may have its next launch opportunity on Monday.
After launch, Crew Dragon must orbit and dock on the ISS
The Resilience capsule will arrive on the International Space Station on November 16, 2020.
NASA / SpaceX
Once the Crew Dragon slides into orbit, it stays there for nearly 24 hours. The astronauts will likely take off their space suits, eat, get a full night’s sleep, have breakfast, organize their belongings, and eventually put their space suits back on to prepare for arrival on the ISS.
SpaceX and NASA expect the Crew Dragon to perform a series of automated maneuvers to dock at the ISS around 5:10 a.m. Saturday. The astronauts must be provided with a suitable outfit in case something goes wrong and the Crew Dragon must return to Earth prematurely. NASA TV will also broadcast the docking operation.
The Crew-2 astronauts during a training session in Hawthorne, California. Left to right: Thomas Pesquet, Megan McArthur, Shane Kimbrough and Akihiko Hoshide.
SpaceX
The ISS will be packed with 11 people for at least four days while Crew-1 is still on board. Those astronauts – Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins and Soichi Noguchi – will climb back into their very own Crew Dragon capsule as early as April 28.
Their capsule, called Resilience, will then disconnect from the ISS, push itself towards Earth and fall through the atmosphere. Parachutes should release, allowing the spaceship to drift to a splash off the coast of Florida.
Crew-2’s astronauts will return the same way in about six months.