On November 16, 2020 at 00:27 UTC the American SpaceX’s Crew Dragon “Resilience” (Crew-1 mission) spacecraft was launched from Kennedy Space Center (LC39A), Florida, USA. The mission also known as USCV-1 (US Crew Vehicle 1). The space vehicle was orbited by the “Falcon-9” rocket-carrier. The spacecraft is piloted by 4 astronauts – spacecraft commander American astronaut Michael Hopkins; pilot, American astronaut, Victor Glover; mission specialist 1, American astronaut, Shannon Walker; mission specialist 2, Japanese astronaut, Soichi Noguchi.

Photo by NASA

The space vehicle is to dock with the International Space Station on November 17. Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi will join current ISS expedition members Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov as well as American astronaut Kathleen Rubins. It is the first operational mission of a “Crew Dragon” spacecraft in the Commercial Crew Program. It is the 2^nd piloted space flight of a “Crew Dragon” spacecraft (also known as “SpaceX Dragon 2” spacecraft).