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A new era in space travel will begin this weekend, with the scheduled takeoff of SpaceX’s first manned operational flight to the International Space Station (ISS).
NASA he’s using Elon Musk’s aerospace company as a “taxi service” to fly its crew to and from ISS, a large spacecraft orbiting the Earth.
Three US astronauts and a Japanese JAXA colleague are scheduled to take off in Florida at 7.49pm Saturday (12.49pm Sunday UK time). Their mission will last six months.
The launch was supposed to take place on October 31, but was delayed due to an “unexpected” problem with the rocket.
This will be SpaceX’s second manned flight for NASA, following the successful Demo-2 flight launched in May.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and a Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts take off in May 2020. File pic
Mr. Musk’s company made history when it became the first private company to send humans into orbit six months ago.
US astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley traveled to the space station and back as part of a two-month mission to demonstrate SpaceX’s ability to safely perform manned missions.
Earlier this week, the US space agency confirmed it had approved SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket to carry astronauts.
It made SpaceX the first commercial human space flight system.
Musk said in a statement, “This is a great honor that inspires confidence in our attempt to return to the Moon, travel to Mars and ultimately help humanity become multi-planetary.”
Jim Bridenstine, NASA Administrator, said, “I am extremely proud to say that we are returning regular human spaceflight launches on American soil on American rocket and spacecraft.”
NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, as well as Japanese Soichi Noguchi, will travel to the space station in the Crew Dragon capsule.
The rocket will separate in a first stage and a second stage immediately after take-off.
The first leg will return to a SpaceX landing ship off Florida, while the second part will continue the journey with the capsule.
Then in orbit, the capsule will separate from the second stage and head towards the ISS.
Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX at a press conference at Kennedy Space Center in May
The project will save the agency a significant amount of money as it will cost around $ 55 million (£ 40 million) per astronaut, rather than the $ 90 million (£ 67 million) charged by the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
The astronauts will spend six months in the orbiting space laboratory, conducting scientific experiments and performing various other tasks.
The crew will depart from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and then dock at the space station at 4:20 am Sunday (9:20 UK time).
The International Space Station (ISS) as seen from the NASA Endeavor space shuttle
(LR) Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley
The astronauts will join three other ISSs – NASA’s Kate Rubins and Russia’s Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov – to join the Expedition 64 crew.
Meanwhile, NASA’s other rental taxi service, Boeing, is not expected to fly its first crew until next summer.
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