SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule successfully docked at the International Space Station Monday, delivering astronauts from the U.S. and Japan. The Crew-1 mission was the first fully operational commercial astronaut launch in SpaceX’s history. Astronauts participating in the mission included Americans Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi. “This is a... READ FULL ARTICLE
The Russian seat assignment will probably slip until next year's Crew Dragon 2. NASA just announced their first female astronaut for Crew Dragon 1, Shannon Walker. NASA Adds Shannon Walker to First Operational Crewed SpaceX Mission
This is starting to feel real. I like. And I'm looking forward to a launch with a Russian on board. This isn't an American Exceptionalism thing - this is more like "we're partners in this amazing thing we're doing, and we can hold up our end of the partnership again" thing.
And from that same thread, the second-stage engine test. I love this shot because it provides a visual representation of the power of that mVAC engine that appears so tame when firing in launch videos:
Good news, and it's only late April. Not trying to jump the gun, I'll bet SpaceX is prepping to be ready for a Crew-1 launch before late 2020. Pending a positive DM-2 post review and NASA's plans for crew rotation, I'll take late August! Just read a story mentioning Victor Glover will be the first African-American to live and work as a crewmember on the ISS.
Ahh, see what you did @Grendal. Nice adjustment to the thread title. USCV-1 does have a good ring to it (United States Crew Vehicle). The designations given to this flight are all over the map. Take your pick, here are some of the other choices I found. SpaceX Dragon Crew-1, sometimes abbreviated as Crew-1 or Crew One. Although I haven't seen it mentioned lately, PCM-1 (Post Certification Mission) has also been used in conjunction with the flight. NASA was the original creator of the acronyms USCV and PCM. SpaceX will eventually be sharing with Boeing's Starliner missions. It'll be interesting to see how crewed flights to the ISS settle out. Would imagine that USCV will be the common denominator.
NASA is the customer, so I agree their naming should be in the thread title like all other customer missions. I do like Crew-1 as it is easier on the normals, but there aren’t any of those here; we’re all norminal!
Yesterday NASA opened their media accreditation invitation that included this statement. "The launch is targeted for no earlier than late-September, following a successful return from the space station and evaluation of NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 test flight with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley." That statement is in sync with earlier mentions of an expected six week review process after the DM-2 mission to complete NASA's certification. Interestingly the website Space Launch Now has published a date of September 29th @ 8:00 pm EDT. I can't confirm their source, other than to add that this would line up with an instantaneous launch window. Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, Commander Michael Hopkins, and Soichi Noguchi masked up while prepping. Nice shirts! Shannon revealing her shoulder "Dragon Rider" and Victor sporting a cool mask. Coming to the SpaceX store, maybe?
It’s great to see a diverse crew like that. Walker spent 161 days on station in 2010. Hopkins spent 164 days on station in 2014. Noguchi has been on missions in 2005 and 2009 for a total of 177 days in space. Glover has never been to space.
Currently targeting 31 October 2020, 06:40 UTC (2:40 a.m. EDT) for launch. Various NASA briefings from today: Starts at 5:20.
The crew have announced the Crew Dragon will be called Resilience. SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts name Dragon capsule 'Resilience' | collectSPACE
In case you want to hear the actual announcement, they do so at 6:35 in the "Astronauts Discuss..." video above.