SpaceX Crew Dragon "Resilience" Is Fueled Up And Ready For Launch

SpaceX is gearing up for its historic Crew-1 trip to the ISS to deliver astronauts to the orbiting research station. The Crew Dragon capsule that will be used for the mission has been dubbed "Resilience" and is currently scheduled to launch with astronauts aboard to the ISS later this month. SpaceX delivered the spacecraft to its hangar at Kennedy Space Center earlier this week.

With the arrival of the spacecraft, it will now be connected with the Falcon 9 rocket before the fully assembled rocket heads to the launching pad. The short trip to the launchpad is scheduled to happen this weekend. Currently, the commercial crew capsule launch is scheduled for November 14 at 7:49 PM EST. There will be four astronauts aboard this historic mission, known as Crew-1.

The launch is the first operational flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX has flown astronauts to the ISS already with a 64-day test flight to the space station conducted earlier this year with astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken aboard. The capsule's nickname of Resilience was chosen by Cmdr. Mike Hopkins who said he hoped the mission would be an inspiration for everyone on what's possible when we work together.

Hopkins pointed out that the definition of resilience means functioning well under stress or during adverse events. 2020 has certainly been a challenge and required resilience within the space program. Resilience was chosen as the name of the spacecraft because it's more than a connection to the four astronauts aboard the spacecraft, it's meant to bring something positive to the lives of everyone.

The crew aboard the Group-1 flight includes Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, and Soichi Noguchi. An interesting side note from Hopkins is that Crew-2 astronauts won't rename the Crew Dragon Endeavour. That is a spacecraft that went on the test mission to get the Crew Dragon certified for spaceflight.