Crew Dragon ''Resilience'' (serial number C207) is the second operational

Crew Dragon Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed, manufactured, and operated by the American space company SpaceX for flights to the International Space Station (ISS) and private spaceflight missions. The spacecraft, which consi ...

reusable spacecraft manufactured and operated by

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

, after Endeavour. It first launched on 16 November 2020 to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(ISS) on the

SpaceX Crew-1 SpaceX Crew-1 (was also known as USCV-1 or simply Crew-1) was the first operational crewed flight of a SpaceX Dragon 2, Crew Dragon spacecraft and the maiden flight of the Crew Dragon Resilience, Crew Dragon ''Resilience'' spacecraft. It was ...

mission, the first operational flight of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Commercial Crew Program The Commercial Crew Program (CCP) provides Private spaceflight, commercially operated human spaceflight, crew transportation service to and from the International Space Station (ISS) under contract to NASA, conducting crew rotations between t ...

. It was subsequently used for three private spaceflight missions with all-civilian crews:

Inspiration4 Inspiration4 (stylized as Inspirati④n) was a 2021 human spaceflight operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman. The mission launched the Crew Dragon Crew Dragon Resilience, ''Resilience'' on 16 September 2021 at 00:02: ...

in 2021, Polaris Dawn in 2024, and Fram2 in 2025.

History

Originally planned to fly the mission after

Crew-1 SpaceX Crew-1 (was also known as USCV-1 or simply Crew-1) was the first operational crewed flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft and the maiden flight of the Crew Dragon ''Resilience'' spacecraft. It was also the second crewed orbital flight la ...

, Crew Dragon C207 was reassigned to fly Crew-1 after an anomaly during a static fire test destroyed capsule C204 intended to be re-flown on the Crew Dragon In-Flight Abort Test. The spacecraft C205 intended to be used on the Demo-2 mission replaced the destroyed spacecraft for the in-flight abort test. C206 intended for use with the Crew-1 mission, was reassigned to the Demo-2 mission. On 1 May 2020, SpaceX said that spacecraft C207 was in production and astronaut training underway. Crew Dragon C207 arrived at SpaceX processing facilities in Florida on 18 August 2020. At a NASA press conference on 29 September 2020, commander Michael Hopkins revealed that C207 had been named ''Resilience''. The trunk was attached and secured to the capsule on 2 October 2020 at Cape Canaveral. ''Resilience'' was first launched on 16 November 2020 (UTC) on a

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a Reusable launch system#Partial reusable launch systems, partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. The first Falcon 9 launch was on June 4, 2010, an ...

from the

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...

(KSC),

LC-39A Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) is the first of Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39, Launch Complex 39's three launch pads, located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. The pad, along with Launch Complex 39B, was built in t ...

, carrying NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, and

JAXA The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into o ...

astronaut

Soichi Noguchi is a Japanese aeronautical engineer and former Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA astronaut. His first spaceflight was as a mission specialist aboard STS-114 on 26 July 2005 for NASA's first "return to flight" Space Shuttle program, Spac ...

on a six-month mission to the International Space Station. The docking adapter, normally used to dock with the International Space Station, was replaced by a domed glass window for the

mission. This allows for 360-degree views of space and the Earth, similar to those provided by the Cupola Module on the ISS. For Polaris Dawn mission, as Crew Dragon capsules lack an

airlock An airlock is a room or compartment which permits passage between environments of differing atmospheric pressure or composition, while minimizing the changing of pressure or composition between the differing environments. An airlock consist ...

, several modifications have been made to the interior of ''Resilience''. Extra nitrogen and oxygen tanks have been installed, a hatch with a ladder called the "skywalker" has replaced the docking port, and the forward hatch has been motorized. To validate their procedures, Resilience underwent multiple cycles of venting and repressurization in a large vacuum chamber. The crew also spent two days in a chamber validating their pre-breathing protocol and wearing their EVA suits in a vacuum.The mission will also be the first crewed operational test of Dragon laser interlink communication via

Starlink Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by Starlink Services, LLC, an international telecommunications provider that is a wholly owned subsidiary of American aerospace company SpaceX, providing coverage to around 130 countries ...

. If successful, it would potentially decrease communication latency and increase

data bandwidth In computing, bandwidth is the maximum rate of data transfer across a given path. Bandwidth may be characterized as network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth. This definition of ''bandwidth'' is in contrast to the field of signal ...

for human spaceflight. On 1 April at 01:46 (

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

), Fram2 launched aboard a

Falcon 9 rocket Falcon 9 is a partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. The first Falcon 9 launch was on June 4, 2010, and the first commercial resupply mission to the Internat ...

, becoming the first

crewed spaceflight Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be ...

to enter a polar

retrograde orbit Retrograde motion in astronomy is, in general, orbital or rotational motion of an object in the direction opposite the rotation of its primary, that is, the central object (right figure). It may also describe other motions such as precession or ...

, i.e., to fly over Earth's poles.

Flights

List includes only completed or currently manifested missions. Dates are listed in

, and for future events, they are the earliest possible opportunities (also known as dates) and may change.

Notes

References

External links

* {{SpaceX SpaceX Dragon 2 Individual space vehicles NASA spacecraft Crewed spacecraft

History

Flights

See also

Notes

References

External links