SpaceX's Crew-1 astronaut launch for NASA: Live updates

SpaceX plans to launch the first operational flight of its Crew Dragon astronaut taxi to the International Space Station on Nov. 14, 2020. Called Crew-1, this will be the second Crew Dragon mission to carry astronauts, following the successful Crew Dragon Demo-2 test flight in 2019.

Riding on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, will lift off from the historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:49 p.m. EST (0049 GMT), if all goes according to plan.

The astronauts will spend about six months at the International Space Station as members of Expedition 64/65 before returning to Earth with a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean in May 2021. Space.com will bring you all the latest updates on the Crew-1 mission here.

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2020-11-08T21:55:33.079Z

Crew-1 astronauts arrive at launch site

The four-astronaut crew of SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission for NASA have arrived at their Kennedy Space Center launch site for their planned Nov. 14 launch to the International Space Station.

NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi touched down at the Shuttle landing Facility at KSC to prepare for their upcoming launch from the Cape Canaveral, Florida spaceport. Liftoff is set for 7:49 p.m. EST (2249 GMT) on Saturday.

Hopkins will command the Crew-1 mission, which will launch to the station on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket. The Crew-1 astronauts have named their spacecraft Resilience for the flight.

“On behalf of the crew of Resilience, on behalf of our families, we want to say a big ‘thank you’ to all of the people at SpaceX, at NASA, and in the (Department of Defense) who have been working tirelessly to get us to this point. It’s really been an incredible effort by an incredible group of people,” Hopkins said in a statement. “As for the crew: we’re ready.”

A crew arrival event for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission is held Nov. 8, 2020, at the Launch and Landing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. From left are NASA astronaut Shannon Walker, mission specialist; NASA astronaut Victor Glover, pilot; Junichi Sakai, manager, International Space Station Program, JAXA; NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine; NASA Deputy Administrator Jim Morhard; Bob Cabana, director, Kennedy Space Center; NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins, spacecraft commander; and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, mission specialist. (Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett)

On Monday (Nov. 9), NASA and SpaceX mission managers will hold a Flight Readiness Review meeting at the Kennedy Space Center to ensure all is ready for the upcoming flight. NASA will hold a press conference one hour after the meeting concludes to update the public on the launch.

You can also join NASA’s Virtual Crew Media Engagement webcast at 1:15 p.m. EST (1815 GMT) on Monday via NASA TV. You can watch that live online here and via NASA.gov/live and NASA’s YouTube channel.

2020-10-27T21:41:54.649Z

SpaceX, NASA target Nov. 14 for Crew-1 launch

SpaceX’s Crew-1 astronauts (from left: NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi) pose in front of their Crew Dragon capsule, “Resilience,” at SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California. (Image credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station is now scheduled to launch on Saturday, Nov. 14, at 7:49 p.m. EST (0049 GMT on Nov. 15), NASA announced Monday (Oct. 26).

Originally scheduled to launch Aug. 30, Crew-1 has faced numerous delays in getting off the ground. NASA first pushed the mission to late September, then to Oct. 23, then to Oct. 31 and finally to early to mid-November, citing logistical and technical issues. The newly announced target date firms up that latter timeline.

NASA also announced that it will hold a news conference on Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) “to discuss the upcoming launch, including results from recent testing of the Falcon 9 Merlin engines following unexpected data SpaceX noted during a recent non-NASA launch,” the agency said in a statement. You can watch it live here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV, or directly via the agency’s website.