NASA's first SpaceX astronauts ready for a "messy camping trip" in space

HOUSTON (Reuters) – The first US astronauts chosen to fly aboard a SpaceX capsule built for NASA ignored a slew of design and test incidents, claiming that such setbacks were "part of process "and that the new technology was much more advanced than space. shuttle program that ended eight years ago.

Veterans of the 48-year-old Space Shuttle Bob Behnken and 52-year-old Doug Hurley are scheduled to take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, later this year, in the first flight of the Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station.

(GRAPHIC: Flights Falcon – tmsnrt.rs/2VG685w)

Two other astronauts, Mike Hopkins, 50, and Victor Glover, 43, are expected to be launched at a later date aboard the vehicle's first official operational mission, possibly along with two other crewmembers. country.

While a range of design issues and test accidents may delay the launch for the first time this year to 2020, astronauts have expressed confidence in the capabilities and safety of spacecraft developed under the NASA's new business partnerships. They also stated that space flights were not always tidy and clean.

"To a certain extent, people think it's pretty glamorous to be able to go into space, but it's actually a messy camping trip," Hurley told Reuters in recent interviews with astronauts led Johnson Space Center at NASA in Houston.

SpaceX, a California-based company owned by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, successfully launched an unmanned Crew Dragon at the space station in March as part of a test mission called Demo 1. The capsule was recovered. safely in the Atlantic and was found several days later. later.

But the following month, April 20, SpaceX experienced a major setback when the same crew Dragon exploded during a ground test of the emergency release boosters of the vehicle, designed to propel the capsule and its crew to the rocket shelter in the sky. case of launch failure.

ANOMALY SURVEY

The April crash, which SpaceX and NASA described as an anomaly in the bland language of aerospace engineers, is currently under investigation, although the astronaut team has gained "remarkable" access To the SpaceX survey, said Behnken.

"In general, the anomaly that happened to us in the past is the best because we are going to solve it … and we will make sure that it does not happen again," said Behnken. "We are the risk takers, and being aware of this risk is also extremely important."

Hopkins said, "It's part of the process. It is not surprising that this happened. We all do not want to have some of these problems, but … as long as you have a good process, a good team set up, you can solve them. "

The Dragon Crew and the Falcon 9 rocket that propel it into orbit are two SpaceX creations. The first crew launch of the two will mark an important milestone, not only for the Musk company, but also for NASA, which wants to resume spaceflight inhabited from US soil after nearly 10 years.

NASA is paying close to $ 7 billion US to SpaceX and its aerospace industry rival, Boeing Co, to allow each of them to build rocket and capsule launch systems allowing for Bring astronauts to the space station. Since NASA ended its space shuttle program in 2011, US astronauts had to board Russia's Soyuz satellite for missions to the orbit research laboratory.

The first unmanned flight of the Boeing Starliner crew capsule is expected to follow SpaceX's first crew mission, which will be followed by a mission carrying real astronauts into space in 2020.