[ad_1]
CAP CAN CANVERAL, Florida – SpaceX is counting down on its first historic flight on Saturday morning, as part of its first spacecraft designed to carry astronauts. You will be able to follow live action online.
The Space Shuttle, called Crew Dragon, will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, here in the wee hours of Saturday, March 2, to show the space agency that it is ready to launch astronauts. The takeoff is scheduled for 14:49 EST (07:49 GMT) from Pad 39A – exactly the same site used for NASA's Apollo moonlighting and where, almost eight years ago, the agency launched his last space shuttle mission.
"We are about to launch American astronauts on American rocket US ground for the first time since the withdrawal of space shuttles in 2011," said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine. said in a Twitter statement. Tonight's test, he added, is an "essential piece" on the path to that goal.
You can watch the launch of SpaceX Crew Dragon on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV, beginning at 2:00 am EST (07:00 GMT). The preparations for launch day went well for SpaceX. There is a 80% chance that the weather will be favorable for the test flight.
Related: SpaceX Dragon Crew Demo-1 Flight: Full Cover
SpaceX's first Crew Dragon spacecraft and its Falcon 9 rocket will be launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on March 2, 2019 at 2:49 am EST.
(Image: © Joel Kowsky / NASA)
For SpaceX, which was founded in 2002 by billionaire Elon Musk for the purpose of traveling in the private space and going to Mars, the Demo-1 mission of Crew Dragon (as we call it) is an important step.
"This is an outcome for which we were founded, to a certain extent," Hans Koenigsmann, Vice President of SpaceX for Construction and Reusability, told reporters Thursday (28 February). "That's what we wanted to do."
In 2014, NASA used SpaceX (and its rival Boeing) to send astronauts to the station as part of the agency's Commercial Crew program, which aims to restore the ability to fly American astronauts. in orbit from American soil. Since the withdrawal of NASA's shuttle fleet in 2011, the agency relies on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to allow astronauts to move into orbit.
Since 2012, SpaceX has been using unprepared versions of the Dragon ship to ship NASA cargoes to the International Space Station. The company based in Hawthorne, Calif., Has transformed this cargo freighter into a twenty-first century space capsule equipped with a rocket escape system and elegant touch-screen controls.
Meanwhile, Boeing is building a spacecraft called the CST-100 Starliner, which will be launched on Atlas V rockets and is expected to make its first unarmed trials in April.
If all goes well with the launch of Crew Dragon, the spacecraft will arrive at the International Space Station early Sunday, March 3 and spend five days moored at the laboratory in orbit before returning to Earth on March 8. SpaceX then aims to launch a Flight Abandon test flight, also unmounted, in the coming months.
The first Dragon of the crew to carry people is due to launch in July, and the astronauts in charge of this Demo-2 mission – Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley – will follow the Demo-1 flight from its launch control center. Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover, two other astronauts, also follow closely. They will be on the first Dragon of the crew to perform an operational mission at the space station.
"It's a big problem," Hurley told reporters at KSC today. "When we started, this program was only PowerPoint graphics and we now have a vehicle on the shelf."
Visit Space.com tonight for a full coverage of SpaceX's Crew Dragon Demo-1 mission.
Send an email to Tariq Malik at [email protected] or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
[ad_2]
Source link