Weather Permitting, Crew-1 Flies to ISS Today; 2020-11-15@19:27 EST (2020-11-16@00:27 UTC)
martyb writes:
The first attempt[*] was a no-go, and the weather forecast is up in the air (thanks to hurricane Eta), but if things work out, SpaceX's Crew-1 will fly to the ISS (International Space Station) today. The launch is scheduled for four hours from the time this story goes live. It marks the official end of the US needing to purchase launches from Russia to get to and from the ISS.
A lot has happened along the way to, during, and following the Crew-1 Demo mission where SpaceX sent a Crew Dragon carrying Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the ISS. For one thing, it was a demo flight. How well did things really work out?
It's launch day for the historic Crew-1 mission to the space station:
SpaceX and NASA set about reviewing data to ensure the actual [test] flight was consistent with all of their simulations over the course of nearly a decade. In developing Crew Dragon, among the raft of tests performed, SpaceX said it completed about 8 million hours of hardware-in-the-loop software testing, 700 tests of Dragon's SuperDraco thrusters, and nearly 100 tests and flights of Dragon's parachutes.
[...] Inside the spacecraft they've named Resilience, NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency mission specialist
Soichi Noguchi, will fly into orbit for a six-month stint on the International Space Station.
[...] There is no guarantee conditions will be great on Sunday at the launch site, Kennedy Space Center, nor downrange at "abort sites" across the Atlantic Ocean should Dragon need to jettison itself from the Falcon 9 rocket during an emergency. The forecast for Sunday calls for a 50-50 chance of getting the launch off during its instantaneous window-7:27pm ET (00:27 UTC Monday). If the launch attempt is scrubbed, a back-up opportunity is available Wednesday.
The crew has already awoken this morning and will receive a final weather briefing at 3:12pm local time today. The NASA webcast below will begin at about the same time. If conditions look decent enough, the crew will move to don suits immediately thereafter and make their formal walkout of the operations and checkout building at 4:05pm en route to the launch pad.
YouTube live-streams: SpaceX and NASA.
[*] See our prior coverage: NASA and SpaceX to Launch to ISS: Sun. 2020-11-15 @ 19:29 EST (Mon. 2020-11-16 @ 00:29 UTC.]
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