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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – NASA and SpaceX approved Friday the first test flight of the new Dragon commercial capsule designed for crews.
Nobody will be on board, only a mannequin instrumented in a SpaceX white space suit. But the capsule will still fly to the International Space Station, after the planned launch on March 2 NASA Kennedy Space Center.
Officials gave the go-ahead after conducting a safety review.
William Gerstenmaier, head of human exploration and human operations at NASA, has called the next flight test "absolutely crucial first step" for the eventual establishment of astronauts.
A phenomenal amount of work was done so that the capsule would not endanger the space station and its three occupants while it was parked and parked, Gerstenmaier said. He will stay at the lab in orbit a little less than a week before aiming for a landing in the Atlantic off Florida. Radiation monitors and supplies are increasing, scientific samples and used equipment are falling.
Human theft is the main mission of the company, said Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of SpaceX, and for now, nothing more important than this effort.
"It's a big problem for SpaceX," he told reporters.
Space X has been delivering space stations since 2012. The private company had to revise its cargo capsule for astronauts. If the upcoming demo goes well, two NASA astronauts could join the next test flight this summer. Officials pointed out that much work remained to be done, as problems could eventually be solved by a new design before the capsule was qualified to transport humans.
This would be the first NASA astronaut launch from US soil in eight years since the end of NASA's shuttle program. They use Russian rockets to get to and from the space station, costing NASA tens of millions of dollars per seat.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that is expected to skyrocket at 2:48 EST on March 2 is all new. NASA does not want recycled boosters for these crewed capsule missions. SpaceX plans to abandon its high-altitude launch in April, reusing the same capsule.
Boeing also participates in the commercial race to transport astronauts from space stations. His first Starliner demo is scheduled for April and the second, with astronauts, not until August.
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