Crew-1 Launch on Schedule for Saturday as Falcon 9 Completes Static Fire
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft that will launch the Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station has completed a key prelaunch milestone: the integrated static fire. Standing on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the rocket’s nine Merlin first-stage engines were fired for 7 seconds for this critical but routine test.
The Crew-1 flight will carry Crew Dragon Commander Michael Hopkins, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Shannon Walker, all NASA astronauts, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Mission Specialist Soichi Noguchi to the space station to join the Expedition 64 crew for a six-month science mission. Liftoff is targeted for Saturday, Nov. 14 at 7:49 p.m. EST.
4 responses to “Crew-1 Launch on Schedule for Saturday as Falcon 9 Completes Static Fire”
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Still no Boeing vehicle…
Nope. But Boeing just hired a software engineering guru away from SpaceX. So Starliner will fly again – successfully this time – and may even do so sometime in 2021 instead of the year following as I had previously expected. Perhaps the Starliner CFT mission, the first with crew aboard, will also, now, take place before year’s end 2021. I wouldn’t say that’s assured, by any means, but it now seems at least a live possibility.
Looking forward to the first operational launch!
Meanwhile the burst disk approach used to fix the Dragon2 SuperDraco issue showed its value last night when it saved the SN8 during a test anomaly with one of the Raptors.