Update: SpaceX craft successfully launched, en route to International Space Station
Update as of 4:30 p.m.:
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with its Crew-1 Dragon capsule successfully launched at 4:27 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Sunday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
About 4:45 p.m., the craft entered space and the Dragon capsule was separated from the Falcon 9 rocket.
The rocket will return to Earth, while the capsule is piloted to the International Space Station by Cal Poly general engineering graduate Victor Glover.
The crew is expected to autonomously dock with the ISS about 8 p.m. PST Monday.
Original story:
A Cal Poly graduate’s flight to the International Space Station was delayed a day due to bad weather.
Victor Glover will be aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket when it launches from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 4:27 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Sunday. He’s set to pilot the SpaceX’s Crew-1 Dragon capsule to the ISS.
Glover will travel alongside three other astronauts: NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins and Shannon Walker, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi.
Originally, the four were set to blast off Oct. 31, but that launch was delayed after engineers found an issue with the first-stage engine gas generators on the Falcon 9 rocket, NASA said in a statement.
A second launch was scheduled for 4:49 p.m. PST Saturday, but wind canceled that one.
Weather conditions at the Kennedy Space Center for Sunday’s launch were “still within margins” and “still a go for launch” as of 10:46 a.m. PST, according to a tweet sent by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.
Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong and College of Engineering dean Amy Fleischer were at the launch site Sunday.
“All systems are go for tonight’s @SpaceX launch!” Armstrong tweeted on Sunday. “Dean Fleischer and I are so honored to witness our Cal Poly alumnus @AstroVicGlover make history today!”
In case the weather worsens again, another backup launch date is available at 3:16 p.m. PST Wednesday.
The mission represents SpaceX’s second attempt to send a manned craft into space. NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley participated in the first test flight to the ISS of the Crew-1 Dragon capsule in May; Saturday will be the capsule’s first operational flight.
Sunday’s mission will also mark NASA’s second manned launch since 2011, following the SpaceX flight in May.
Glover and the others will join NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryxhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov on the space station.
For 197 days, Glover and the rest of the crew will conduct research and scientific experiments such as growing radishes to better understand plant growth and nutrition in microgravity; conducting cancer therapy research; studying how mining with microbes might be used on asteroids and continuing research into the effects of microgravity on the human heart.
Glover, who’s heading into space for the first time, will make history as the 15th Black astronaut in space. A total of 21 Black astronauts have traveled outside Earth’s atmosphere.
Glover is one of 48 active NASA astronauts who are considered “active,” meaning that they can get called to a flight assignment at any time. Four of those active astronauts are Black.
Glover, 44, is the fourth Cal Poly alumnus to serve as a NASA astronaut. He graduated from the San Luis Obispo university with a general engineering degree.
This story was originally published November 15, 2020 at 1:03 PM.
