SpaceX’s Crew Dragon “Resilience” spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket — stretching 215 feet long — are ready for rollout to pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in preparation for the launch of four astronauts Saturday night to the International Space Station.
These photos taken inside SpaceX’s hangar at the southern perimeter of pad 39A. A transporter-erector will haul the rocket up the ramp to the historic seaside launch pad, the same location where the Apollo 11 moon mission took off in 1969.
The Crew Dragon capsule, named Resilience, will take off on SpaceX’s first operational crew rotation flight to the International Space Station. The mission, named Crew-1, will deliver astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi to the orbiting outpost for a half-year expedition.
The capsule arrived at the hangar built on the southern perimeter of pad 39A last Thursday, Nov. 5, to be integrated with its Falcon 9 launch vehicle. These photos show the Crew Dragon spacecraft — measuring 26.7 feet (8.1 meters) tall and around 13 feet (4 meters) in diameter — inside the hangar mounted on SpaceX’s strongback transporter for rollout to the launch pad.
The capsule’s reflective body-mounted solar arrays are easily recognizable in the images, along with its stabilization fins, which would help with aerodynamics of the spacecraft had to perform a launch abort maneuver.
NASA’s “worm” logo emblazoned on the Falcon 9’s upper stage. The worm insignia was painted into the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket for the Crew Dragon’s Demo-2 test flight earlier this year.
Three other Falcon 9 first stage boosters are pictured inside the pad 39A hangar, all showing the markings of previous trips into space.
The fully-assembled Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon capsule stretches 215 feet (65 meters) long tip to tail. The launch set for Saturday at 7:49 p.m. EST (2249 GMT) will mark the 98th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket since its debut launch June 4, 2010.
See our Mission Status Center for continuing live coverage of the Crew-1 mission.
#SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is ready! これが僕たちのロケットです！ pic.twitter.com/cfS9V7JxYb
— NOGUCHI, Soichi 野口 聡－（のぐち そういち） (@Astro_Soichi) November 9, 2020
See you soon at @NASA_TV for Crew-1 LIVE! 1315ET, 1215CT, 0215 JST! 日本時間2:15からNASAテレビでオンライン記者会見があります！ネットで見てね♪ pic.twitter.com/K8KFEuEh11
— NOGUCHI, Soichi 野口 聡－（のぐち そういち） (@Astro_Soichi) November 9, 2020
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