NASA, SpaceX Crew Mission Launch Set for Nov. 14 from Kennedy Space Center

By  //  October 27, 2020

targeting 7:49 p.m. EST on Saturday, Nov. 14

NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, and Mike Hopkins, and astronaut Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency – who constitute the crew of NASA’s Crew-1 mission – inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. (NASA/SpaceX Image)

BREVARD COUNTY • CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA – NASA and SpaceX now are targeting 7:49 p.m. EST Saturday, Nov. 14, for the launch of the first crew rotation mission to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

Managers of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission will hold a media teleconference at 4 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Oct. 28, to discuss the upcoming launch, including results from recent testing of the Falcon 9 Merlin engines following unexpected data SpaceX noted during a recent non-NASA launch.

Audio of the teleconference will stream live on the agency’s website.

Briefing participants include:

– Kathy Lueders, associate administrator, Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington
– Steve Stich, manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston
– Hans Koenigsmann, vice president, Build and Flight Reliability, SpaceX, Hawthorne, California

Media may ask questions via phone only. For the dial-in number and passcode, please contact the newsroom at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida no later than 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, at ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission will launch the agency’s astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) mission specialist Soichi Noguchi, from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy.

Crew-1 astronauts will join the Expedition 64 crew of Commander Sergey Ryzhikov, and Flight Engineers Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins.

The arrival of Crew-1 will increase the regular crew size of the space station’s expedition missions from six to seven astronauts, adding to the amount of crew time available for research.

The Crew-1 mission will launch a few days after the Nov. 10 scheduled launch of NASA’s Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, following a thorough review of launch vehicle performance.

CLICK HERE FOR BREVARD COUNTY NEWS