SpaceX has been delivering cargo to and from the International Space Station since 2012, and in 2020 SpaceX began transporting people to the orbiting laboratory under NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The Soyuz MS-17 crew ship that carried the Expedition 64 crew to the International Space Station on Oct. 14, 2020, is pictured Oct. 18, 2020, docked to the Rassvet module. The orbital complex was above the Atlantic Ocean in between the island nation of Cape Verde and the African nation of Mauritania. Uncrewed visiting spacecraft are excluded (see Uncrewed spaceflights to the International Space Station for details). ISS crew members are listed in bold. 'Time docked' refers to the spacecraft and does not always correspond to the crew. As of 9 April 2020, 240 people from 19 countries had visited the space station, many of them multiple times.
Crew On Space Station
- Nov 16, 2020, 11:33 PM The Crew Dragon spaceship seen docked to the International Space Station on Monday as the NASA astronaut Kate Rubins carried out hatch-opening procedures.
- The Crew Dragon docks to the International Space Station, May 31, 2020. Chris Cassidy If docking succeeds, though, Crew-1 will become the first operational mission to come out of a decade-long.
To date, SpaceX has completed 24 tests of its upgraded Mark 3 parachute design they are working to certify for use on the Crew Dragon spacecraft that will fly NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. The system was used during the SpaceX in-flight abort test in January.
Crew On Space Station
- Nov 16, 2020, 11:33 PM The Crew Dragon spaceship seen docked to the International Space Station on Monday as the NASA astronaut Kate Rubins carried out hatch-opening procedures.
- The Crew Dragon docks to the International Space Station, May 31, 2020. Chris Cassidy If docking succeeds, though, Crew-1 will become the first operational mission to come out of a decade-long.
To date, SpaceX has completed 24 tests of its upgraded Mark 3 parachute design they are working to certify for use on the Crew Dragon spacecraft that will fly NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. The system was used during the SpaceX in-flight abort test in January.
On March 24, SpaceX lost a spacecraft-like device used to test the Crew Dragon Mark 3 parachute design. The test requires a helicopter to lift the device suspended underneath it to reach the needed test parameters. However, the pilot proactively dropped the device in an abundance of caution to protect the test crew as the test device became unstable underneath the helicopter. At the time of the release, the testing device was not armed, and a test of the parachute design was not performed.
International Space Station Crew 2020 Tour
Although losing a test device is never a desired outcome, NASA and SpaceX always will prioritize the safety of our teams over hardware. We are looking at the parachute testing plan now and all the data we already have to determine the next steps ahead of flying the upcoming Demo-2 flight test in the mid-to-late May timeframe.
