SpaceX and Boeing with its CST-100 Starliner were contracted under NASA's Commercial Crew Program to provide the service flights ending NASA's reliance on rides from Russia during the decade after the end of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011. "Now we continue our cooperation."Ĭrew-5 marks the fifth rotational mission to the ISS that sends up four astronauts at a time for six-month stays on board. "We just continue what was started many years ago in 1975 when Apollo-Soyuz crew worked together," said Sergei Krikalev, executive director for Human Space Flight Programs with Roscosmos during a post-launch press conference. Kikina is the first cosmonaut to ride on a Crew Dragon. "It's very exciting for Commercial Crew to have our fist female commander in our program and we're very excited to fly Anna Kikina." "She's very excited about flying in space," said NASA Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich after a Launch Readiness Review on Monday.
Mann is the first woman to command a Crew Dragon flight, and will also be the first Native American woman to fly into space. "Crew-5 is go for launch," Mann said with just under an hour before liftoff. The closeout team left the tower and the crew access arm has swung away from the capsule allowing the arming of the capsule's launch escape system and then propellant load. "That hatch is going to be closed for six months as they make their way into orbit and then that won't get open until they come back aboard the recovery ship." "It's really important that that area is super pristine," Behnken said.
AMONG US SPACE BACKGROUND SERIES
With 2 1/2 hours before liftoff, Mann and Kikina broke into ear-to-ear smiles with all four trading off a series of fist bumps while secured in their seats.ĭuring an initial hatch closing procedure before 10:30 a.m., teams identified potential foreign object debris-a hair-in the seal, and cleaned it out followed by a second closure and good side-hatch leak check. followed by mission specialists Kikina and Wakata. They made their entrance and took the two middle seats as commander and pilot just after 9:15 a.m.
AMONG US SPACE BACKGROUND LICENSE
and walked out for last chance goodbyes with family before heading out to the launch pad in a trio of white Teslas, each featuring custom license plates that read "BLA5TOFF." Mann and Cassada led the way after arriving to the pad doing what commentators called the "rocket recline" looking up at the rocket before heading up the launch tower to board the spacecraft. The quartet woke up at 4:30 a.m., suited up around 8 a.m. "The only thing I wish was that I was there with them because the one place that it's better to watch the launch from than right here at the Kennedy Space Center is onboard the rocket ship." "It was picturesque, you know with the blue sky, the blue background, a beautiful day here in Florida," said NASA commentator and astronaut Bob Behnken, who flew on the first crewed Dragon flight Demo-2 back in May 2020.
The launch is the second of three from the Space Coast this week following a Tuesday night Atlas V liftoff and a planned SpaceX Falcon 9 launch Thursday from neighboring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. In fact, that's what's keeping us in orbit right now and preventing this trip on a Crew Dragon from being a one-way trip." We're here to tell you there's plenty of gravity up here. "We call this little guy our freefall indicator. "We're experiencing Einstein's happiest thoughts," said Cassada explaining Einstein had a brainstorm that a person in freefall would not feel their own weight. With roughly a 29-hour ride before arriving to the ISS, the crew could be seen clapping hands and throwing fist pumps as a plush Albert Einstein doll floated about the cabin. Mann is joined by fellow NASA astronaut and pilot Josh Cassada and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina-all three flying for the first time-plus Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, who is making his fifth trip to space having flown on several space shuttle missions and one Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Once again, SpaceX was able to recover its first-stage booster on recovery ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic while the spacecraft made it to orbit. "You've got three rookies that are pretty happy to be floating in space right now and one veteran astronaut who's pretty happy to be back as well."
"That was a smooth ride," said Crew-5 commander and NASA astronaut Nicole Mann. The four-person crew from NASA, Japan and Russia hitched a ride in the Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket that lifted off from KSC's Launch Pad 39-A just after noon.
0 kommentar(er)
