For the very first time in history, SpaceX has sent astronauts into space within a reused Crew Dragon space capsule with the help of a flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket booster, blowing off a new era of flight-proven human spaceflight.
Besides NASA’s Space Shuttle, whose orbiter and solid rocket boosters were regularly refurbished for 3 years, no additional crewed spacecraft or rocket in the background of spaceflight has launched astronauts over once. SpaceXa private company, aims to change that and be the second thing of any type to reuse a crewed spacecraft or rocket science. Even more importantly, a successful launch would create Crew Dragon the very first space capsule – and Falcon 9 the very first liquid rocket – of any type to be reused in an astronaut launching.
After high seas and winds hundreds or even thousands of miles downrange scrubbed a Thursday, April 22nd effort, weather cooperated on Friday, allowing a flawless liftoff in 5:49 am EDT (09:49 UTC). Excluding nature, the mission was a flawless technical success from before launch to nicely after liftoff, continuing to show SpaceX’s extraordinary experience and the refined nature of Falcon 9 and Dragon.
Crew Dragon Endeavour S/C Sep! That has been a superb smooth countdown and start! pic.twitter.com/g8UPCKZHdS
— Chris B – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) April 23, 2021
Second Stage shutdown – nominal orbit!Falcon 9 B1061-2 lands on OCISLY. This booster has launched eight astronauts! pic.twitter.com/0uslTOLkCJ
— Chris B – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) April 23, 2021
A flight-proven SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft taken four astronauts into orbit – and into sunlight – early on Friday. (Richard Angle)
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Now safely in orbit, Crew Dragon “Endeavor” (capsule C206) and astronauts Akihiko Hoshide, Thomas Pesquet, Shane Kimbrough, and Megan McArthur have a ~23-hour free-flight ahead of them because their SpaceX spacecraft autonomously functions to rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS). That rendezvous will require five major burns of Draco maneuvering thrusters, the first of which has been finished around 40 minutes after reaching orbit.
Barring surprises, Crew Dragon C206 is scheduled to dock with the ISS for the second time no earlier than (NET) 5:10 am EDT (09:10 UTC) on Saturday, April 24th. When successful, the Crew-2 Dragon will combine SpaceX’s Crew-1 Dragon in a docking port just a small number of meters away, indicating the very first time that two Crew Dragons happen to be simultaneously docked at the ISS.
SpaceX takes two Dragons into the space station for the first time
A bit less than five months ago, the very first updated Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft – an uncrewed version of Crew Dragon – joined the identical Crew-1 Dragon in orbit and in the ISS, marking a substantial first for SpaceX. As the company itself made apparent at the moment, that milestone was expected to kickstart a virtually uninterrupted one to 2 decades of Dragon surgeries in distance, meaning that each additional Crew or even Cargo Dragon launch will cause just two Dragons into orbit. Crew-2 is the second of these guaranteed dual-Dragon events since Crew-1 launched and docked with the ISS in November 2020.
Pending an equally effective rendezvous with the ISS, Friday’s flawless Crew-2 launch means that the Crew-1 Dragon and astronauts Shannon Walker, Soichi Noguchi, Mike Hopkins, and Victor remain on schedule to leave the ISS and return to Earth on April 28th after six months . SpaceX’s next Dragon mission – Cargo Dragon two ’s second flight, CRS-22 – is scheduled to start no earlier than (NET) June 3rd, 2021.
Falcon 9’s upper stage engine plume catches searing sunrise before sunlight reaches the Florida coast. (Richard Angle)