SpaceX launches Resilience into orbit
BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – Its name is Resilience.
It’s made of titanium, aluminum and carbon fiber. It can withstand temperatures exceeding 2,700 degrees as it barrels through Earth’s atmosphere – but it’s more than a spacecraft. To the astronauts who named the capsule, it’s a symbol of what mankind can accomplish in the face of extreme adversity.
“I think all of us can agree 2020 has certainly been a challenging year: A global pandemic, economic hardships, civil unrest, isolation. And despite all of that SpaceX and NASA has kept the production line open and finished this amazing vehicle that’s getting ready to go on its maiden flight to the International Space Station,” Commander Mike Hopkins said at a news conference in September.
SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station on Sunday on the first full-fledged taxi flight for NASA by a private company.
The Falcon rocket thundered into the night from Kennedy Space Center with three Americans and one Japanese, the second crew to be launched by SpaceX. The Dragon capsule on top was due to reach the space station late Monday and remain there until spring.
The three-men, one-woman crew led by Hopkins, an Air Force colonel, named their capsule Resilience in a nod not only to the pandemic but also to racial injustice and contentious politics. It’s about as diverse as space crews come, including physicist Shannon Walker, Navy Cmdr. Victor Glover, the first Black astronaut on a longterm space station mission, and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi, who became the first person in almost 40 years to launch on three types of spacecraft.
The historic launch was pushed from Saturday to Sunday evening because of rough seas that would not enable the drone ship to reach the discarded first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket. It’s important for NASA to recover the booster because it will be reused for the next crewed launch, which is set for March 30. The launch is the first NASA flight certified by the Federal Aviation Administration, signaling the beginning of regular crewed flights on commercial spacecraft.
Resilience will stay at the ISS for six months and return with the four Crew-1 astronauts in April.
As the nation deals with coronavirus spikes and the presidential election fallout, Hopkins hopes their launch Sunday will ignite the resilient nature of the human spirit.
“We hope that it brings a smile to your face,” he said. “We hope that it provides something positive in your lives and quite frankly we hope that it’s an inspiration, that it shows that when you work together there’s no limit to what you can achieve.”