Related: SpaceX's Crew Dragon space capsule explained (infographic) While Behnken and Hurley took about 19 hours to catch up with the space station, Crew-1 will take about 27 hours to catch up with the ISS. During that time, the astronauts will get to move around a bit, get some sleep and even eat some food before arriving at the space station. The vehicle is fully autonomous, so it's designed to fly without any human intervention. However, it has a complete control panel that the astronauts can use if necessary. Hopkins is the mission's commander, with Glover serving as the pilot. Walker and Noguchi will be the mission specialists. The duo were added onto the mission's roster approximately seven months ago and did their training during the height of the pandemic. "I've been pleasantly surprised with how SpaceX handled the training and everything," Noguchi said during a preflight news briefing. "Hopper is a great leader." Hopkins, Walker and Noguchi are all veteran flyers, however, this flight will be Glover's first. "It's hard to put into words, it's surreal," Glover said before the flight. "I'm excited just to go to space. We have an amazing spacecraft and are going to join an amazing team." The Crew-1 astronauts pose for a photo in the crew access arm at Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Image credit: Soichi Noguchi/Twitter) The Crew-1 astronauts will be joining three people already living and working on the space station. In Oct., NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and two Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Serchkov and Sergey Ryzhikov, blasted off to the orbital outpost and are ready to welcome their new crew members. Hopkins explained during a preflight briefing Nov. 9 that the space station might be a little cramped after Crew-1's arrival. Currently, there is a shortage of sleeping pods on the space station. That's because historically ISS crew size has been six, and the arrival of Crew-1 will bring the orbiting lab's population to seven. According to Hopkins, he will sleep in the Dragon until another sleeping pod arrives at the space station, which could arrive mid-mission or after the Crew-1 team returns to Earth. There may be a shortage of sleeping pods, but by sending a crew of four astronauts, it will increase the amount of research carried out on the space station. To that end, the Dragon capsule is carrying a bevy of research experiments to the station along with the four astronauts. Some of the experiments include a student genetics project, tests for future spacesuits and microbe-eating rocks. Newbie spaceflyer Victor Glover will be participating in another research experiment that will help understand how spaceflight can change a spaceflyer's immune system. Glover will collect biological samples from his body during the mission which will help researchers examine how dietary changes can affect an astronaut's immune function as well as their own microbiome. The study, called the Food Physiology experiment will be ongoing.