Nasa SpaceX launch live news: four crew lift off onboard Dragon capsule

Shotwell says there is one Dragon capsule being refurbished as well as two cargo capsules and three additional crew capsules in production right now.

A journalist is asking Lueders about how the astronauts manage to sleep.

They can cover their windows, and they change into PJs, she says – although she uses the term “more comfortable clothes”.

“They know they gotta get their rest so they can do the sequence of events for docking,” says Lueders.

A journalist is asking about the thermal control system now.

Commercial crew programme Manager Kathy Lueders says, “What happened was it hit a fitter and that happens during system startups, and id did exactly what it was supposed to do, it flipped over to a second leg – we have a lot of redundancy in the system – and the crew was able to go in and clear it up,” she says.

It was an issue of a startup censor getting everything aligned.

“Nothing really happened to the system,” she says. “The system’s working great. Like I said, it’s just a little bit of a startup glitch.”

The second crew mission will be flown in about 4.5 months, says Shotwell.

A journalist has asked how “wired in” Elon Musk was to the launch and where he watched it from.

“He was tied in very closely to the launch, I have a series of texts to prove it,” says Shotwell. Strangely, she does not say where he was when he watched it.

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and COO, says that she has an update from Dragon, and that it is thankfully: “all systems nominal”.

This is “the beginning of a new era in human spaceflight,” she says.

Hiroshi Sasaki, the Vice President and Director General of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), has called it a “beautiful launch” and said he is especially grateful to everyone for what they have achieved considering the coronavirus pandemic.

NASA administrator James Bridenstine says that today’s flight represents a move from tests to operational flights.

“This is a great day for America and a great day for Japan and we look forward to many years of partnership not just in lower earth obit but all the way to the moon,” he says.

Of the more than 300 astronauts NASA has sent to space, just 14 have been Black, the New York Times reports. Next year, “he could be followed by Jeanette Epps, who would be the first Black woman to to be part of an I.S.S. crew. She will fly aboard the first operational crewed trip of Boeing’s Starliner capsule,” according to the Times.

You can read more about this here.

Time to meet another one of the Dragon crew, former Navy commander and test pilot Victor Glover. When Glover boards the International Space Station tomorrow, he will not be the first Black astronaut to do so, but he will be staying for significantly longer than others have, according to the New York Times.

Tonight’s launch was Glover’s first ever space flight. The highest up he’s been until now is 20km above ground.

The International Space Station is over 400km from earth.

The crew have nor removed their flight suits and are drying them, NASA TV tells us. They are now having private consultations with their doctors to make sure that they are all physically A-OK.

Back to the liftoff: commander Mike Hopkins just after the Dragon took flight, “By working together through these difficult times, you’ve inspired the nation, the world, and in no small part the name of this incredible vehicle, Resilience.”

Once reaching orbit, he radioed: “That was one heck of a ride.”

People watched the launch from cities around the world – including London in the UK, Gaborone in Botswana, Athens in Greece and and Bangkok, Thailand.