– Culture borrowed from the Russian space program has now been physically transferred to the first American aircraft.
The “zero-g [gravity] show” that landed aboard SpaceX’s Crew-9 aboard the International Space Station on Saturday (Sept. 28), previously flown in two Russian Soyuz capsules, including one that survived an in-flight accident.
“I have a little Falcon here,” said NASA astronaut and Crew-9 commander Nick Hague, as he revealed a small plush baby falcon inside the cockpit of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft “Freedom.”
Experts Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov of Roscosmos have just entered orbit after a nine-minute flight on a two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, as it appears that a toy falcon is floating at the end of its tether, so it’s a “zero-g indicator.”
“I love the fact that Falcon 9 [launched] Crew-9 and we have a falcon on board, “Hague said.” This is a multi-flyer, though. It was my first flight with Aleksey [Ovchinin] with me, with Aleksey, with Christina [Koch]. So say hello to ‘Aurora’.”
Hague’s first attempt to fly to the International Space Station ended three minutes into the October 2018 flight when the Russian Soyuz FG rocket carrying Ovchinin (and Aurora) aboard crashed. The launch tower pulled the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft from their lift off and laid them loose so they could land.
Five months later, Hague, Ovchinin and Aurora took off again, this time in Soyuz MS-12, and successfully made it to the space station.
The third edition of The Hague (in Aurora) and the second time in space on Saturday went well, and made some history. Launch Crew-9 was the first manned flight to fly from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Airport in Florida. All Dragon spacecraft that have been launched have been flown to Complex 39A near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
Hague also became the first active duty member of the US Space Force to fly off a Space Force launch pad.
Hague and Aurora will join Ovchinin when they arrive in port on Sunday. The Russian cosmonaut arrived at the orbiting camp on Soyuz MS-26 earlier this month and will serve with Hague as part of the ISS Expedition 72 crew for the next five months.
Hague and Gorbunov will return to Earth in “freedom” with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who started at the space station in Boeing’s Starliner Crew Flight Test in June. NASA reassigned Wilmore and Williams to fly home on the Dragon after technical issues with the Starliner raised safety concerns. On Sept. 6, Boeing capsule “Calypso” made a safe, but no touch.
The change resulted in the reduction of two Crew-9 crew members. NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson were removed so that Wilmore and Williams had a seat for the ride.
“I love the history of the zero-g indicator for Nick, specifically, and I’m sure Alexey will be happy to bring it back. [it] as well,” said Cardman, who joined NASA to cover the launch.”[They’re] bringing the band back together.”
Aurora is a bean bag meat sold by Puffkins (Swibco) under the name “Swoop.” First made in 1994, the toy no longer works.
The concept of zero-g flight and the first manned space flight can be traced back to Soviet-era astronaut Yuri Gagarin. He packed a small doll into his Vostok plane so he could watch it fly around the world in 1961. The doll was flown to the Mir airport in 1991 to celebrate its 30th anniversary. of Gagarin’s flight.
Other Soyuz commanders have returned their missing signals. Aleksandr Skvortsov, who started three flights at the airport before retiring, chooses one toy duck each time. Similarly, Fyodor Yurchihin started four times with a white puppy given to him by a high school teacher in 1976.
Hague is the first American astronaut to fly a zero-g demonstration since the tradition began on US spaceflight in 2019. “Suhail,” the mascot for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut program, is also being carried aboard the Soyuz and the Dragon. but by two different Emirati crews and in two different designs.
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