Space X

Crew 1 Mission

SpaceX Crew-1 was the first operational mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in the Commercial Crew Program. Originally designated "USCV-1" by NASA in 2012, the launch date was delayed several times from the original date of November 2016.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft Resilience launched on 16 November 2020 at 00:27 UTC (7:27 PM EST - 15 November 2020) on a Falcon 9 from the Kennedy Space Center, LC-39A, carrying NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker along with JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, all members of the Expedition 64 crew.

On 15 November 2020, final pre-launch preparations were completed. The hatch of Resilience was closed at 22:32 UTC, but reopened briefly after a slight drop in pressure was detected. Troubleshooting the hatch seal led to discovery of a small amount of foreign object debris in the seal. The hatch was then closed again, and mission controllers proceeded with the countdown. No further concerns were noted, and on 16 November 2020 at 00:27:17 UTC, Resilience lifted off successfully.

The astronauts entered a stable orbit after about nine minutes. For this mission, the crew had chosen a plush toy of "The Child" (also known as "Baby Yoda") from The Mandalorian as a Zero-G indicator. The crew were awakened on the second day of the flight with Phil Collins's "In the Air Tonight".

The Astronauts

Michael S. Hopkins

Michael Scott Hopkins was born on December 28, 1968 in Lebanon, Missouri but grew up on a farm in Richland, Missouri in a United Methodist family. After graduating from the School of the Osage High School in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, in 1987, he entered the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

While there, he played defensive back for the Illinois Fighting Illini football team and was awarded the Big Ten Medal of Honor, which recognizes one male and one female student from the graduating class of each Big Ten member school, for demonstrating joint athletic and academic excellence throughout their college career.

He graduated in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering. He followed his undergraduate studies with a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from Stanford University, which he earned in 1992.

Victor J. Glover

Victor Jerome Glover (born April 30, 1976) is a NASA astronaut of the class of 2013 and Pilot on the first operational flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon to the International Space Station. Glover is a commander in the U.S. Navy where he pilots an F/A-18, and is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. He was a crew member of Expedition 64, and served as a station systems flight engineer.

He graduated from Ontario High School (California) in 1994, where he was a quarterback and running back for the Jaguars. He was awarded Athlete of the Year 1994. He attended California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California on a wrestling scholarship and received his Bachelor of Science degree in General Engineering in 1999. Glover is a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, initiated May 27, 1996 through the Omicron Pi chapter.

Soichi Noguchi

Soichi Noguchi (born 15 April 1965 in Yokohama, Japan) is a Japanese aeronautical engineer and JAXA astronaut. His first space flight was as a Mission Specialist aboard STS-114 on 26 July 2005 for NASA's first "return to flight" Space Shuttle mission after the Columbia disaster.

He was also in space as part of the Soyuz TMA-17 crew and Expedition 22 to the International Space Station (ISS), returning to Earth on 2 June 2010. He is the sixth Japanese astronaut to fly in space, the fifth to fly on the Space Shuttle, and the first to fly on Crew Dragon.

Shannon Walker

Shannon Walker (born June 4, 1965) is an American physicist and a NASA astronaut selected in 2004. She launched on her first mission into space on June 25, 2010 onboard Soyuz TMA-19 and spent over 163 days in space.

She studied physics at Rice University in Texas, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Physics in 1987.