Official crew portrait for the SpaceX Crew-3 mission. It will fly on the new Crew Dragon "Endurance". From left to right: Commander Raja Chari, pilot Thomas Mashburn; Matthias Maurer, European Space Agency mission specialist; Kayla Barron, NASA mission specialist.
SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule now has a name.
Today, Oct. 7, NASA astronaut Raja Chari revealed that the vehicle will be called "Endurance". Chari is the commander of SpaceX's Crew-3 Mission, which will launch towards the International Space Station aboard Endurance on October 30.
Chari, Kayla Barron, Thomas Marshburn, and Matthias Maurer, both NASA astronauts, had the honor to place a name on Endurance's spacecraft. It was previously called "Capsule 210". Chari explained that "Endurance" is a multi-level operation.
Photos: SpaceX's Crew-2 mission from the International Space Station to SpaceX
Chari stated that the name "represents the tenacity and spirit of the human spirit as we push machines and humans further than ever before," in a NASA announcement video posted today on Twitter.
Chari explained that it was also a nod towards the fact that the development, production and training teams that brought us here have survived a pandemic. "And then, of course, the fact that this vehicle will be reused. One of the coolest things about SpaceX Dragon is that we will be the first to use Endurance. But it won't the last."
Endeurance will be the third Crew Dragon vehicle that will carry people to orbit. Endeavour was SpaceX's first crewed mission. It flew the Demo-2 test flight in 2020 to the station. Crew-2 arrived at the orbiting laboratory in April. Endeavour is expected to finish up next month.
Resilience flew Crew-1 to the station in May. Inspiration4 was the first private mission to Earth orbit. Jared Isaacman, a billionaire tech entrepreneur, and three of his crewmates took Inspiration4 on a free three-day flight to orbit last month.
Crew-1 astronauts, like Chari and his crew, cited the coronavirus epidemic as a factor for their choice of "Resilience"
Crew-3 astronauts will spend approximately six months aboard the International Space Station. SpaceX's Crew-3 mission will be the third that SpaceX has flown under a contract with NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Boeing also signed a similar agreement, but its CST-100 Starliner capsule is yet to fly astronauts into orbit.
