Four astronauts were successfully launched on the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience to the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday, the first of what the US hopes will be many routine missions following a successful test flight in late spring.
NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, left, Victor Glover, second from left, Mike Hopkins, second from right, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, right, wearing SpaceX spacesuits, stop to pose for a picture as walk out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building to depart for Launch Complex 39A during a dress rehearsal prior to the Crew-1 mission launch, on November 12, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo: VCG
Three Americans - Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker - and Japan's Soichi Noguchi blasted off at 7:27 pm (0027 GMT Monday) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, thus ending almost a decade of international reliance on Russia for rides on its Soyuz rockets. "This is a great day for the United States of America, and a great day for Japan," said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine during a post-launch press conference.
Twelve minutes after liftoff, at an altitude of 124 miles (200 kilometers) and a speed of 16,800 miles (27,000 kilometers) per hour, the capsule successfully separated from the second stage of the rocket.
"That was one heck of a ride," said mission commander Hopkins from orbit.
SpaceX confirmed that it was on the right orbit to reach the ISS a little more than 27 hours later, at around 11:00 pm Monday night (0400 GMT Tuesday), joining two Russians and one American aboard the station, and stay for six months.
There was a problem with the cabin temperature control system, but it was quickly solved.
"She's operating just fine," said SpaceX President Glynne Shotwell during the press conference. But "we'll be able to breathe a sigh of relief, 26 or so hours from now, once we hand the crew over to NASA."
SpaceX briefly transmitted live images from inside the capsule showing the astronauts in their seats, something neither the Russians nor the Americans had done before.
US President-elect Joe Biden hailed the launch on Twitter as a "testament to the power of science and what we can accomplish by harnessing our innovation, ingenuity, and determination," while President Donald Trump called it "great."
Vice President Mike Pence, who attended the launch with his wife Karen, called it a "new era in human space exploration in America."
The Crew Dragon capsule earlier this week became the first spacecraft to be certified by NASA since the Space Shuttle nearly 40 years ago. Its launch vehicle is a reusable SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. At the end of its missions, the Crew Dragon deploys parachutes and then splashes down in water, just as in the Apollo era.
SpaceX is scheduled to launch two more crewed flights for NASA in 2021, including one in the spring, and four cargo refueling missions over the next 15 months.
The agency will have spent more than $8 billion by 2024, with the hope that the private sector can take care of NASA's needs in "low Earth orbit."
Newspaper headline: New era in human spaceflight