Up in the Swing Arm and Dragon Spacecraft with CREW-1 […]

Up in the Swing Arm and Dragon Spacecraft with CREW-1

SpaceX and NASA completed a full rehearsal of launch day activities with NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover​, Shannon Walker​, and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi. Like they would on launch day, teams were on consul in Mission Control in Hawthorne and Firing Room 4 at the Cape.

The crew began their day in the Astronaut Crew Quarters inside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout building at historic Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where they donned their spacesuits, got into their Tesla transport vehicles, and departed for Launch Complex 39A. When they arrived at the pad, they rode up the tower elevator, boarded Crew Dragon by way of the crew access arm, and checked Dragon’s communications systems before the hatch was closed. The simulated go/no-go poll for Falcon 9 propellant load was completed early at T-1 hour with all SpaceX and NASA teams providing go.

Teams are on track for launch of Crew-1 on Sunday at 7:27 p.m. EST. Pre-launch news conference later today: https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive

And from the prior day’s Flight Certification: “NASA announced it has certified SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon human spaceflight system for crew missions to and from the International Space Station – the first commercial system in history to achieve such designation. Not since the certification of the space shuttle nearly 40 years ago has NASA certified a spacecraft, rocket, and ground support systems for regular flights with astronauts.

SpaceX put every component of every system through its paces, including two flight tests to and from the International Space Station, demonstrations of Dragon’s escape system both on the launch pad and in-flight, over 700 tests of the spacecraft’s SuperDraco engines, more than 500 joint soft-capture docking tests to validate the performance of Dragon’s docking system design, about 𝟖,𝟎𝟎𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐩 𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠, and nearly 100 tests and flights of Dragon’s parachutes to ensure a safe landing back on Earth—in addition to all of the knowledge gained from twenty previous successful cargo resupply missions to the space station and over forty Falcon 9 block 5 launches.

Human spaceflight is SpaceX’s core mission, and we take seriously the responsibility that NASA has entrusted in us to safely carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. We are humbled to help NASA usher in a new era of space exploration.” — https://www.spacex.com/updates/nasa-certification-11-10-2020/index.html