Watch NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts arrive at the International Space Station aboard their Dragon spacecraft Freedom. Docking is scheduled for approximately 7:40 p.m. EDT (23:40 UTC).
Once aboard the orbiting laboratory, astronauts Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins, and Kjell Lindgren of NASA, alongside Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency), will spend nearly six months conducting new scientific research in areas such as materials science, health technologies, and plant science to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to benefit life on Earth.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 3:52 a.m. EDT on April 27, 2022. Onboard the Dragon spacecraft are Crew-4 astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, all NASA astronauts, along with Samantha Cristoforetti with ESA (European Space Agency) for the mission to the International Space Station.
Starship is a fully-reusable and super heavy-lift launch vehicle in development by SpaceX. Both of its stages – Super Heavy booster and Starship spacecraft – use liquid oxygen and liquid methane as propellant. Starship’s main features are its very high payload mass capability and low potential operating cost. A tanker variant spacecraft is planned that will refuel other Starships in orbit, increasing the 100 t (220,000 lb) transport range to higher energy orbits and destinations, including the Moon and Mars. The earliest Starship variant will deploy satellites, while later variants will also serve space tourists, or be optimised for lunar landings. Starship’s potentially low cost is key in enabling SpaceX’s Mars ambitions as well as making point-to-point rocket travel on Earth possible.
Starship will launch at Starbase, Kennedy Space Center, and two offshore launch platforms. It would launch upright, with the booster’s thirty-three Raptor engines operating in parallel. After Super Heavy separates, the spacecraft fires its three Raptor Vacuum and three sea-level engines, inserting itself into orbit. The booster then controls its descent via its four grid fins, targeting the launch tower’s arms. At the end of the mission, the Starship spacecraft de-orbits and enters the atmosphere, protected by a series of hexagonal heat shield tiles. The spacecraft then glides towards the landing site using its flaps for control and flips to land.
The rocket was first outlined by SpaceX as early as 2005, with frequent design and name changes as the concept matured. In July 2019, Starhopper, a prototype vehicle with extended fins acting as fixed landing legs, performed a 150 m (490 ft) low altitude test flight under the power of a single Raptor engine. In May 2021, Starship SN15 successfully flew to 10 km (6 mi), transitioning to horizontal free-fall before successfully landing for the first time after four failed attempts by previous prototypes. As of February 2022, the BN4 booster and SN20 spacecraft are scheduled for the first full-stack flight in early 2022, though this schedule is subject to change.
The SpaceX South Texas launch site, referred to by SpaceX as Starbase, and also known as the Boca Chica launch site, is a private rocket production facility, test site, and spaceport constructed by SpaceX, located at Boca Chica approximately 32 km (20 mi) east of Brownsville, Texas, on the US Gulf Coast. When conceptualized, its stated purpose was “to provide SpaceX an exclusive launch site that would allow the company to accommodate its launch manifest and meet tight launch windows.” The launch site was originally intended to support launches of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles as well as “a variety of reusable suborbital launch vehicles”, but in early 2018, SpaceX announced a change of plans, stating that the launch site would be used exclusively for SpaceX’s next-generation launch vehicle, Starship. Between 2018 and 2020, the site added significant rocket production and test capacity. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk indicated in 2014 that he expected “commercial astronauts, private astronauts, to be departing from South Texas,” and he foresaw launching spacecraft to Mars from the site.
Between 2012 and 2014, SpaceX considered seven potential locations around the United States for the new commercial launch facility. Generally, for orbital launches an ideal site would have an easterly water overflight path for safety and be located as close to the equator as possible in order to take advantage of the Earth’s rotational speed. For much of this period, a parcel of land adjacent to Boca Chica Beach near Brownsville, Texas, was the leading candidate location, during an extended period while the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) conducted an extensive environmental assessment on the use of the Texas location as a launch site. Also during this period, SpaceX began acquiring land in the area, purchasing approximately 41 acres (170,000 m2) and leasing 57 acres (230,000 m2) by July 2014. SpaceX announced in August 2014, that they had selected the location near Brownsville as the location for the new non-governmental launch site, after the final environmental assessment completed and environmental agreements were in place by July 2014. An orbital launch of the Starship would make it SpaceX’s fourth active launch facility, following three launch locations that are leased from the US government.
SpaceX conducted a groundbreaking ceremony on the new launch facility in September 2014, and soil preparation began in October 2015. The first tracking antenna was installed in August 2016, and the first propellant tank arrived in July 2018. In late 2018, construction ramped up considerably, and the site saw the fabrication of the first 9 m-diameter (30 ft) prototype test vehicle, Starhopper, which was tested and flown March–August 2019. Through 2021, additional prototype flight vehicles are being built at the facility for higher-altitude tests. By March 2020, there were over 500 people employed at the facility, with most of the work force involved in 24/7 production operations for the third-generation SpaceX launch vehicle, Starship.
SpaceX CRS-23, also known as SpX-23, is a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station. The mission was contracted by NASA and was flown by SpaceX using the Cargo Dragon C208. This was the third flight for SpaceX under NASA’s CRS Phase 2 contract awarded in January 2016. A NASA Flight Planning Integration Panel (FPIP) from 2019 indicates that SpaceX cargo missions will begin to extend their duration to 60 days and beyond starting with CRS-23.
SpaceX plans to reuse the Cargo Dragons up to five times. The Cargo Dragon launches without SuperDraco abort engines, without seats, cockpit controls and the life support system required to sustain astronauts in space. This newer design provides several benefits, including a faster process to recover, refurbish and re-fly versus the earlier Dragon CRS design used for ISS cargo missions.
The GITAI S1 Robotic Arm Tech Demo will test GITAI Japan Inc.’s microgravity robot by placing the arm inside the newly added Nanoracks Bishop Airlock, which was carried to the station by Dragon C208.2 during the SpaceX CRS-21 mission last year. Once inside the airlock, the arm will perform numerous tests to demonstrate its versatility and dexterity.
Designed by GITAI Japan Inc., the robot will work as a general-purpose helper under the pressurized environment inside the Bishop Airlock. It will operate tools and switches and run scientific experiments. The next step will be to test it outside the ISS in the harsh space environment. The robot will be able to perform tasks both autonomously and via teleoperations. Its arm has eight degrees of freedom and a 1-meter reach. GITAI S1 is a semi-autonomous/semi-teleoperated robotic arm designed to conduct specified tasks internally and externally on space stations, on-orbit servicing, and lunar base development. By combining autonomous control via AI and teleoperations via the specially designed GITAI manipulation system H1, GITAI S1 on its own, possesses the capability to conduct generous-purpose tasks (manipulation of switches, tools, soft objects; conducting science experiments and assembly; high-load operations; etc.) that were extremely difficult for industrial robots such as task specific robotic arms to do.
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