NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts completed the first relocation of the commercial crew square to the International Space Station on Monday (April 5) when they launched the Crew Dragon spacecraft in preparation for the arrival of the next crew.
The resettlement was carried out by NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, along with astronaut Soichi Noguchi, the astronaut exploration agency (JAXA) in Japan. The crew disconnected the Crew Dragon, nicknamed Resilience, from the front port of the Space Station’s Harmony module at 06:30 EDT (1030 GMT) and reconnected with the space station at 07:08 EDT (1108 GMT). space-oriented port of the module. .
The astronauts moved Resilience to another port in the space station to make way for an incoming Crew Dragon spacecraft that would arrive later this month, named Endeavor, which will be located in Harmony’s front port. The arrival SpaceX Crew-2 mission includes NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet. The crew is on April 22 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the space station.
Related: Meet Crew-1: These are the four astronauts flying on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon
“We are very excited about [moving Resilience] and we would like to congratulate the entire Expedition 64 team as well as the Crew-1 Dragon Team. Congratulations to the commercial crew program for 10 years. What an incredible ten years it has been, “Hopkins said on Friday (April 2) during a call with Steve Stich, director of the NASA Commercial Crew Program, of the space station.” To think about where you started and where we are now – and now we’re getting ready to actually take this vehicle out for a little twist. … We are all very excited to be a part of it. ‘
On March 19, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, with two Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, relocated the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft from the Earth-oriented gate of the Rassvet module of the station to the Poisk gate with space. Unlike the Soyuz relocation maneuver, which had to fly manually, the Crew Dragon is autonomously driven.
‘It’s quite cool and it’s a great view to separate from your vehicle that has been your home for months and to be able to look at it from 60 meters [about 200 feet], ‘Rubins said during the call from the space station, which NASA shared on YouTube Friday (April 2).
In preparation for the relocation Monday, Hopkins said he will spend his Easter Sunday making sure he clears everything out of the Crew Dragon spacecraft – his version of an Easter egg hunt, as he has been staying in Resilience for the past few months. said during the call.
The spacecraft has been ‘largely calm’ since the SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts arrived in the country space station on 16 november. Therefore, the crew prepared for the move by verifying that Resilience’s communications systems were up and running, and completing the control package, which Hopkins said “went very well” during the call.
Crew-1 is scheduled to return to Earth in late April or early May so that Harmony’s spaceport will remain empty for when a Dragon cargo spacecraft with supplies and the first set of new solar power plants for the space station later this summer arrives. Rubins and Glover during a space walk on 28 February, when they install one of the two modification kits needed to support the new arrays. The Dragon cargo spacecraft will have to dock at the space-oriented port to enable robotic exploitation of the new solar power plants from Dragon’s trunk using Canadarm2, according to a statement from NASA.
Today’s shift maneuver was the first time a Crew Dragon spacecraft had to be moved, but it will probably not be the last, as the Crew-1 mission is the first of six certified crew missions NASA and SpaceX reportedly planned as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew program.
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