Coverage of the November 15 SpaceX-NASA launch | CNN Business

SpaceX sends first full team of astronauts to space

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Business

Updated 8:14 PM EST, Sun November 15, 2020

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi onboard, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 mission is the first crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program. Hopkins, Glover, Walker, and Noguchi launched at 7:27 p.m. EST from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center to begin a six month mission onboard the orbital outpost. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

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'Eight and a half minutes of terror': Analyst describes moments after liftoff

4:21 • Source: CNN

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi onboard, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 mission is the first crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program. Hopkins, Glover, Walker, and Noguchi launched at 7:27 p.m. EST from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center to begin a six month mission onboard the orbital outpost. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

'Eight and a half minutes of terror': Analyst describes moments after liftoff

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What we covered here

What happened: A SpaceX spacecraft carrying four astronauts soared into outer space Sunday — marking the kick off of what NASA hopes will be years of the company helping to keep the International Space Station fully staffed.

What’s next: The Crew Dragon is expected to dock with the International Space Station at around 11 pm ET Monday, November 16.

Why this is important:

This is the first fully operational mission for a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.
It will mark SpaceX’s second astronaut launch overall. The first Crew Dragon to launch humans, which was still considered a test mission, took off in May.

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What's next

From CNN Business' Jackie Wattles

Gregg Newton/AFP/Getty Images

The Crew Dragon is expected to dock with the International Space Station at around 11 pm ET tomorrow.

Who else is on board the ISS: The four astronauts on board this mission — NASA’s Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi with Japan’s JAXA space agency — will join NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Russia’s Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, who are already onboard the space station. They arrived aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft last month.

The mission ahead: Walker, Noguchi, Hopkins and Glover will spend about six months in space before returning to Earth in the same Crew Dragon vehicle they’re on right now. The return trip will see the spacecraft carefully reenter Earth’s atmosphere, deploy parachutes and splash down off the coast of Florida.

Slight issue with Crew Dragon thermal control system

From CNN Business' Jackie Wattles

The mission control team in Hawthorne, California told the crew there was a hangup with Crew Dragon’s thermal control system, which helps keep the spacecraft’s cabin at normal temperatures.

There was an unusual pressure reading on one of the system’s pumps. But it’s not a huge deal – an automated system detected the problem and switch to a back-up pump, and the Crew Dragon spacecraft is still flying smoothly through orbit. The mission is proceeding as planned.

A 27-hour trek to the space station

From CNN Business' Jackie Wattles

After liftoff, it will take 27 hours for the Crew Dragon spacecraft to maneuver its way to the International Space Station before docking around 11 pm ET tomorrow.

It’s possible to make the trip in far less time, but it depends on the day: If the crew was able to launch yesterday, they could have made the trek in around eight and a half hours.

Why the big time difference? The timing of today’s takeoff and the ISS’s position in orbit means this trip will have to take longer than nine hours. And when that happens, NASA makes sure to extend the trip to allow the crew enough time to catch some sleep on board the spacecraft. That’s to ensure they’re fully alert when it comes time to dock with the space station.

And yes, the Crew Dragon capsule has a bathroom on board.

Crew Dragon is free

From CNN Business' Jackie Wattles

The Crew Dragon capsule, carrying four astronauts, is now flying free through Earth’s orbit. The capsule uses tiny thrusters to stay oriented and help steer the spacecraft toward the International Space Station.

It’s a slow and precise journey that will take 27 hours. The capsule is expected to dock with the International Space Station tomorrow around 11 pm ET.

SpaceX rocket booster lands on droneship

From CNN Business' Jackie Wattles

The first-stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, the largest part of the launch vehicle that houses the nine main engines, detached from the second stage of the rocket and made a pinpoint landing on a robotically-controlled seafaring platform, or droneship, in the Atlantic Ocean.

This is a routine feat for SpaceX. The company has recovered more than 60 of its first-stage rocket boosters after launch, allowing the company to refurbish the booster and use it again.

That saves the company some cash, SpaceX says.

The second stage of the rocket has now fired up its engine, and it’s working to propel the Crew Dragon capsule — carrying the four astronauts — to more than 17,000 miles per hour. That’s the speed needed to keep an object in a stable orbit around the Earth.

The first stage has separated

From CNN Business' Jackie Wattles

The rocket just hit “MECO” – or main engine cutoff. That means the 9 Merlin engines attached to the rocket’s first-stage, the ones that give the initial thrust at liftoff, are done burning fuel for now.

The first-stage of the rocket then broke off from the second-stage rocket, which has its own massive engine optimized for blasting through space where the atmosphere is super thin.

The second-stage lit its engine, and it’s now powering the Crew Dragon capsule to higher and higher speed.

It’ll need to hit at least 17,000 miles per hour to reach “orbital velocity.” That essentially means the spacecraft will be traveling so fast, at just the right angle, that it’ll begin to continuously fall around the earth — otherwise known as orbiting.

Rocket hits key milestone: Max-Q

From CNN Business' Jackie Wattles

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket just hit “Max-Q.” That’s the engineering term for when a launch vehicle reaches the highest aerodynamic pressure — and everything still appears to be going flawlessly.

LIFTOFF! Four astronauts headed to space aboard SpaceX rocket

From CNN Business' Jackie Wattles

The SpaceX 9 rocket fired up the nine engines at its base, and the rocket is now soaring toward outer space.

There are four astronauts on board —NASA’s Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi with Japan’s JAXA space agency — and they’re headed for a six-month stay on the International Space Station.

Watch the moment:

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A message of unity

The Crew Dragon is named “Resilience” in honor of the stressful time the world is enduring.

Astronaut Mike Hopkins continued that message, saying this to Mission Control just minutes before takeoff:

Watch the moment:

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T-1 minute: Computers are prepared for automatic abort

From CNN Business' Jackie Wattles

Shortly before liftoff, launch controllers hand over some control to computers that can trigger an automatic abort if they detect anything abnormal about the SpaceX rocket or spacecraft.

Computers have halted SpaceX missions before: Just last month, an issue with a couple of the rocket’s engines was detected by the automated system, freezing the countdown clock with just two seconds to go.

Fueling has begun

From CNN Business' Jackie Wattles

All of the initial hardware and communications checks are done, the astronauts are strapped into their seats, and launch officials have given the go-ahead to start loading the Falcon 9 rocket up with fuel.

The propellants used are RP-1, or “Rocket Propellant 1,” and “LOX” — or “liquid oxygen.”

The oxygen is made so cold that it turns liquid, and after LOX loading, viewers will be able to see what looks like steam or smoke emanating from the rocket. That’s just the super-chilled oxygen boiling off the side of the rocket as the surrounding air heats some of the excess LOX.

More than 1 million pounds of propellant will be funneled into the Falcon 9 over the next half hour. Meanwhile, the astronauts are still sitting tight inside the Crew Dragon capsule, which sits atop the rocket.

CNN’s Rachel Crane has more:

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The arm has retracted

From CNN Business' Michael Ballaban

The crew access arm, which allows the astronauts to get inside the Crew Dragon capsule from the launch pad, has retracted from the Falcon 9 rocket.

The Launch Escape System, which can fire rockets to pull the capsule away from the main rocket should it experience a problem before or during launch, is also armed and ready to fire should it be necessary.

The Launch Escape System is a crucial bit of safety tech, and as such, it’s tested extensively before anyone gets onboard. Here’s what it could look like, if it needs to be activated on the launch pad:

And here’s what it looks like should it need to be activated in the air:

Thankfully, those were just tests.

SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft: from cargo to astronauts

From CNN Business' Jackie Wattles

This will be only the second crewed launch that SpaceX has conducted in its 18-year history. But it’s far from the first flight of a Dragon.

An earlier version of the spacecraft was designed to carry loads of cargo and other supplies — from toilet paper to science experiments — to and from the International Space Station.

The cargo Dragon has made routine trips since 2012.

The first flight of a Dragon spacecraft with people onboard was in May, and it carried two NASA astronauts on a trip that was still technically considered a test mission. This will be Crew Dragon’s first fully operational mission.

T-minus one hour

There’s less than an hour left before the planned launch of Crew-1, with four NASA astronauts aboard a SpaceX rocket.

In the next hour, officials from NASA and SpaceX, as well as the astronauts, will conduct final checks before the Crew Dragon capsule heads into orbit. They’ll also begin fueling the rocket, a crucial step that’s usually saved for last as a safety measure (rocket fuel is explosive, after all).

Air leak fixed

From CNN Business' Jackie Wattles

The launch support team found “a little bit of debris in the seal,” SpaceX engineer John Insprucker said. That could’ve caused air to leak out, making the Crew Dragon cabin lose pressure.

But they were able to open the cabin’s hatch, clean out the debris and perform another leak check – and this time it looked good.

A stable, pressurized cabin is crucial to keep the crew safe and comfortable during flight.

The team also completed a communications test to make sure the astronauts have a good connection with SpaceX’s mission control in Hawthorne, California.

Weather is looking good

From CNN Business' Jackie Wattles

Forecasters expected a 50-50 chance that the weather would stay clear enough to allow tonight’s launch to move forward. So far, things are still looking good, at least where the rain is concerned.

But if conditions change, launch officials could stop the countdown clock anytime before liftoff.

Checking an air leak on Crew Dragon

From CNN Business' Jackie Wattles

The flight technicians had to reopen the Crew Dragon spacecraft’s hatch after an air leak was detected. There’s still time to troubleshoot the issue and get it fixed before liftoff, SpaceX engineer John Insprucker said.

It’s “not necessarily a show-stopper, it is premature to speculate about that,” a spokesperson said on the launch livestream.

There is a 10-minute margin built into the launch window, and the team is running ahead of schedule, but if it takes too long to remedy the issue they may have to scrub – or delay – the launch.

CNN’s Rachel Crane has more:

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Is it safe to launch during a pandemic?

From CNN Business' Jackie Wattles

According to NASA, yes.

The astronauts have been in strict quarantine together, and extra precautions are being taken to keep everything clean.

NASA, SpaceX, and military personnel will need to gather in control rooms to support the launch, and they’ve implemented additional safety measures to combat the spread of Covid-19.

One thing NASA can’t control, however, is how many people crowd onto nearby beaches in Florida to watch the rocket take off.

During Crew Dragon’s last mission in May, thousands of people packed into tight crowds on public beaches to catch a glimpse of the fiery takeoff. Soon after, Florida became a Covid-19 hotspot, though its not clear if any cases were linked to the rocket-watching crowds. More than 17,200 people in the state have died from the virus.

Florida’s rate of infection has since decreased since its June peak, but NASA officials are once again begging tourists to stay home and watch the livestream of takeoff.

Astronauts strap in

From CNN Business' Jackie Wattles

NASA

All four astronauts are now strapped into the Crew Dragon spacecraft, which sits atop the 200-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket. They’re being helped by masked technicians, nicknamed “the ninjas” for their black jumpsuits, while running through a series of pre-flight checks. We’re still about two and a half hours from launch.

The technicians make sure the crew’s helmet microphones and communications systems are working, and they ensure the belts that strap the astronauts into their seats are properly secure.

For the next couple of hours, they’ll continue to run through communications checks. Each crew member has an iPad that includes all sorts of data, including a detailed schedule for the next 30 hours.

Getting on board

From CNN Business' Jackie Wattles

The astronauts, NASA’s Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi with Japan’s JAXA space agency, are inside the “white room” — an area within the aerial walkway at the launch pad just outside the Crew Dragon spacecraft.

The crew took a moment to sign the wall of the white room, following a tradition started by NASA astronauts Robert Behken and Douglas Hurley. They were the first people ever to ride aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in a historic mission that took off in May.

That mission was still considered a test flight, however. This will mark the first-ever fully operational mission that the SpaceX vehicle will make to the International Space Station.