[ad_1]
Space travel | 14. November 2020
The launch of the International Space Station ISS scheduled for Saturday has been delayed. The start of the mission was postponed to Sunday due to strong winds, as announced on Friday by the US space agency NASA.
NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi prepare for a test launch Thursday.Photo: Keystone, AP, Joel Kowsky
The rocket launch is now scheduled for Sunday evening (Monday, 01:27 CET) from Kennedy Space Center to the ISS. There will be three NASA astronauts and one Japanese aboard the “Crew Dragon” capsule.
Six months after its historic flight on the ISS, Tesla founder Elon Musk’s American company SpaceX wants to send a manned rocket into space for the first time on a routine six-month mission.
In recent years, US astronauts have relied on Russian rockets to reach the ISS. NASA stopped its shuttle program nine years ago due to high costs and after two accidents.
In order to regain independence from Russia, the US government under Donald Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama hired SpaceX and aviation giant Boeing to build space shuttles. Boeing’s “Starliner” capsule is still in testing and, as expected, will not be ready until next year.
For SpaceX, the now planned space flight is therefore also an opportunity to position itself as the US market leader in space travel. In late May, the company successfully sent two US astronauts on a two-month mission to the ISS for the first time.
.
[ad_2]
Source link
