NASA, SpaceX Set New Crew-1 Launch Date, Time

NASA and SpaceX have announced that the Crew-1 mission will be launching next month.

NASA said in a statement on its website that the launch of the first crew rotation mission to the International Space Station (ISS) will be held on Nov. 14 at 7:49 p.m. EST. The mission is part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which aims to improve spaceflight, among other things.

NASA and SpaceX will discuss the details of the upcoming launch in a teleconference to be held Wednesday at 4 p.m. EDT.

During the event, the agency and the private spaceflight company will also talk about the results of the recent testing conducted on the Falcon 9 Merlin engines. Tests were conducted after SpaceX noted unexpected data during a recent non-NASA launch.

Space enthusiasts can join in as audio of the teleconference will be streamed live on NASA's website.

The participants of the briefing will include Kathy Lueders, the associate administrator of the human exploration and operations mission directorate in NASA's headquarters in Washington. Joining Lueders are Steve Stich, manager of the Commercial Crew Program, and Hans Koenigsmann, vice president for build and flight reliability for SpaceX.

The Crew-1 mission will send NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) mission specialist Soichi Noguchi, to the ISS aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Crew-1 astronauts will be joining those already aboard the ISS, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov.

"The arrival of Crew-1 will increase the regular crew size of the space station’s expedition missions from six to seven astronauts, adding to the amount of crew time available for research," NASA said in the statement.

NASA's Commercial Crew Program aims to improve commercial transportation to and from the ISS as well as provide additional research time and more opportunities for discovery while on the orbiting laboratory. By improving human transportation services to and from the space station, NASA will be able to expand its focus to building spacecraft designed for deep space missions.