NASA has announced that SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule will launch its first operational crewed mission on October 31. The crew includes three NASA astronauts and one from Japan's JAXA.
On May 30, SpaceX launched astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station (ISS)—a milestone for two reasons. It marked the first crewed mission from U.S. soil since 2011 and the first operated aboard a privately built American spacecraft. In August, the duo returned safely to Earth, concluding the Demo-2 test flight.
Now cleared for operational flights, SpaceX's Crew-1 mission—originally slated for October 23—has been rescheduled to October 31 at 8:40 a.m. French time, per NASA.
This adjustment allows ground teams and ISS crews extra time to support Russian Soyuz launches on October 14 and 21. NASA and Roscosmos can conduct further tests on a minor leak detected months ago, while SpaceX refines its Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket.
Crew-1 comprises NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, joined by JAXA's Soichi Noguchi. This marks the first international crew on a NASA-certified commercial rocket and spacecraft. They will spend six months aboard the ISS.
Meanwhile, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet will return to the ISS in spring 2021 aboard SpaceX's Crew-2 mission, announced by Pesquet on Twitter in late July. If successful, he'll be the first European on this new spacecraft.
