NASA astronauts who launched aboard SpaceX’s first operational mission (Crew-1) to the International Space Station (ISS) under the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, have been working at the orbiting laboratory for almost six-months; They are scheduled to return on April 28. Before they return, the next crew (Crew-2) will meet up with them at the Space Station. SpaceX’s Crew-2 mission is set to liftoff on April 22 atop a Falcon 9 rocket aboard the Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft at 6:11 a.m. EDT from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Crew-1 NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, are preparing to undock the Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft to relocate it ahead of Crew-2 arrival, to make room for Crew Dragon Endevour to dock autonomously. It will be the first time in history that a SpaceX spacecraft is relocated in space. “Four Expedition 64 astronauts are getting ready to move their SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle to another docking port on the International Space Station next week,” the agency announced in a press release, “Resilience, the docked commercial crew craft from SpaceX, will taxi four astronauts from the Harmony module’s forward-facing port to its zenith, or space-facing port, on Monday at 6:30 a.m. EDT. The autonomous relocation maneuver will take about 45 minutes with NASA TV beginning its live coverage at 6 a.m.” they announced. You can watch a Live broadcast in the video below, courtesy of NASA.
Slipped back into our spacesuits for the upcoming port relocation of @SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience on Monday. We'll take a short ride in Dragon to move from the Harmony forward port to the Harmony zenith port in order to make room for our new crewmates! pic.twitter.com/x9LD69mUOC
— Mike Hopkins (@Astro_illini) April 1, 2021
The agency said the Crew-1 quartet will ride the Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft to relocate it "in the unlikely event Resilience is unable to redock. This assures there aren’t more crewmembers on the station than seats available on docked crew ships.” This week, the astronauts conducted spacesuit checks to ensure they are ready to be worn for the upcoming relocation operation. Yesterday, April 1, Hopkins shared a photograph of the crew wearing the SpaceX-designed spacesuits at ISS. “We'll take a short ride in Dragon to move from the Harmony forward port to the Harmony zenith port in order to make room for our new crewmates,” he captioned the image, pictured above.
Mike "Hopper" Hopkins is excited about Monday's hop of Dragon Resilience during the port relocation. "A little hop, I love that."
— Chris B - NSF (@NASASpaceflight) April 2, 2021
#WenHop pic.twitter.com/zCKGeY0yLE
Featured Image Source: SpaceX/NASA
About the Author
Evelyn Arevalo
Evelyn J. Arevalo joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover news as a Space Journalist and SpaceX Starbase Texas Correspondent. Evelyn is specialized in rocketry and space exploration. The main topics she covers are SpaceX and NASA.
