A new era of space travel is about to begin this weekend with the scheduled lift off of the first operational crew of SpaceX’s International Space Station (ISS).
NASA Using Elon Musk The Air Force uses its crew as a “taxi service” to fly crews from there ISS, A huge spaceship in orbit around the earth.
At 7.45pm on Saturday (12.49am UK time on Sunday), three US astronauts and a Japanese colleague are scheduled to lift off in Florida. Their mission will last six months.
The launch was supposed to be on October 31, but was delayed due to “unexpected” problems with the rocket.
This will be SpaceX’s second crew aircraft for NASA – following the successful Demo-2 aircraft that took off in May.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and the Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts launched from May 2020 File File Peak
Mr. Musk’s firm made history when it became the first private company to send humans into orbit six months ago.
US astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Harley SpaceX’s crew went to and from the space station as part of a two-month mission to demonstrate their ability to perform missions safely.
Earlier this week, the U.S. space agency confirmed it had been approved Of SpaceX Crew Dragon capsules and Falcon 9 rockets to carry Astronaut.
This made SpaceX the first commercial human spaceflight system.
Mr Kasturi said in a statement: “It is a great honor to have confidence in our efforts to return to the moon, to travel to Mars and ultimately to help humanity in its multi-planetary process.”
NASA Administrator Jim Brydenstein said: “I am very proud to say that we are launching an American rocket and a regular human spaceflight on American soil in space.”
NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, as well as Japan’s Sochi Noguchi, will board the Crew Dragon Capsule’s space station.
The rocket will be separated in the first stage and in the second stage after the lift-off.
The first part will leave Florida and return to the SpaceX landing ship, the second part will continue the journey with the capsule.
The orbital capsule will then detach from the second phase and go to the ISS.
Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, at a news conference at the Kennedy Space Center in May
The project will save the company considerable money as it will cost about $ 55m (os 40m) per astronaut, costing the Russian space agency Roskomos 90 90 million (£ 67 million) more than it was charging.
The astronaut will spend six months orbiting the space laboratory, conducting scientific experiments and performing various other tasks.
The crew will start the explosion from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and then dock through the space station at 4.20am on Sunday (8.20am).
Seen from the International Space Station (ISS) NASA space shuttle Endeavor
(LR) Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley
The astronauts will be joined by three more IS-NASA’s Kate Rubins and Russia’s Sergei Ryzykov and Sergei Kud-Serkov from the mission crew crew.
Meanwhile, Boeing, NASA’s other taxi service for hire, is not expected to fly the first crew until next summer.
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