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SpaceX is set to launch four astronauts into the world’s first human-sized commercial spacecraft.
It won’t be SpaceX’s first human mission. NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley boarded the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft this summer, climbed into Earth orbit, and docked at the International Space Station. After two months of living and working at the space station, they climbed back into the Crew Dragon, screamed through the atmosphere, and parachuted safely to Earth.
But the whole mission was seen as a demonstration – a critical step towards getting NASA manned space flight certification.
On Tuesday, NASA announced that it had finally certified SpaceX’s complete launch system for human spaceflight.
The move was the result of the agency’s flight readiness review, in which experts and officials spent two days examining SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, the Crew Dragon spacecraft, the software and mission operations.
The certification came just days before SpaceX’s next scheduled astronaut launch, which is scheduled for Saturday. The company has already perched a new Crew Dragon on the rocket for this mission, the longest and most critical to date. Called Crew-1, the round-trip mission to the space station is the first of six missions that Elon Musk’s rocket company has contracted with NASA.
Crew-1 astronauts sit inside the Crew Dragon during training. From left to right: Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins and Soichi Noguchi.
SpaceX via NASA
“People tend to think of it as just the spacecraft, but it’s the spacecraft, it’s the launcher, it’s all ground processing, it’s how you operate. All of this will fly our crew safely to the International Space Station, ”said Kathy Lueders, who heads NASA’s human space flight program, at a press briefing Tuesday. showed the data, and we trust you to do so. It’s a big trust factor here. “
Weather permitting, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 will launch the Crew Dragon into space on Saturday at 7:49 p.m. ET. On board will be astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi. They are expected to dock at the space station eight and a half hours later, where they will stay for about six months, marking the longest manned space flight in US history.
When it’s time to return home, the astronauts will climb back into the Crew Dragon, which will remain attached to the space station during their stay, and then travel through a fall of fire through Earth’s atmosphere.
“The lives of the crew are in our hands – a very important responsibility,” said Lueders.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, guided by four parachutes, splashed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida on March 8, 2019.
Cory Huston / NASA
This is the first time that NASA has certified a human flight system since the launch of the space shuttle program nearly 40 years ago. The move was the culmination of 10 years of development and testing funded by NASA’s Commercial Crew program, which was created to restore the capabilities of human-spaceflight to the United States through commercial partnerships. The government spent more than $ 6 billion on this effort, according to the Planetary Society. The program could finally reach its goal with the launch on Saturday.
Elon Musk celebrates after SpaceX launched NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on May 30.
REUTERS / Steve Nesius
“Thanks to NASA for its continued support to SpaceX and its partnership in achieving this goal,” Musk said in a press release. “I could not be more proud of everyone at SpaceX and all of our suppliers who worked incredibly hard to develop, test and pilot the first commercial manned space flight system in history to be certified by NASA. It is a great honor that inspires confidence in our efforts to return to the Moon, travel to Mars, and ultimately help humanity become multi-planetary. “
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