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Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, explains that the goal of his space company is to get people to Mars. To date, SpaceX has only launched satellites and cargoes (and a Tesla sports car), not astronauts. On Saturday, SpaceX aims to take a step closer to its goal with a demonstration flight of a capsule within the reach of the crew, even if there will be no world on this particular flight.
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When is the launch and how can I watch it?
If you are in the United States, you will have to stay awake late or get up very early. The launch is scheduled for 2:49 am Eastern Time on Saturday, March 2nd. NASA TV will broadcast the coverage on the web and YouTube at 2 am
What are SpaceX and NASA trying to accomplish with this launch?
This is an end-to-end test of the spacecraft, known as the Demo-1, from its launch until its docking at the International Space Station until it reaches ################################################################################## 39, to his landing in the Atlantic Ocean. The idea is to discover the problems (and solve them) before putting the astronauts on board.
If the mission takes off on Saturday morning, she will visit the space station on Sunday. He would leave on March 8 be parachuted into the ocean after reintegration into the Earth's atmosphere.
Is there anything on board the Crew Dragon?
The capsule can accommodate up to seven astronauts. For this flight, one of the seats will be occupied by some kind of artificial person – what NASA calls a licensee. or "anthropomorphic test device" – who will wear a SpaceX space suit. The device includes sensors for measuring the forces and accelerations of a person during a trip.
SpaceX engineers named her Ripley after the heroine of Alien films played by Sigourney Weaver.
It will also carry 400 pounds of cargo like any other trip to the space station, as well as inserts simulating the mass of a fuller capsule. Ground engineers will use flight information to understand how the spacecraft reacts when it is full.
Who else builds a capsule so that the crew can get to the space station?
Why does NASA need these privately manufactured capsules?
Since the withdrawal of space shuttles in 2011, the only way for NASA astronauts to access space has been to pay the travel costs aboard the Russian spacecraft Soyuz.
NASA was developing its own rocket, the Ares I, but it was much more expensive and the Obama administration canceled the program. NASA had already started using commercial companies to ship goods to the space station, and it was thought that commercial companies could also offer cheaper attractions to astronauts.
NASA is still developing a larger rocket, the Space Launch System, and the capsule, Orion, for missions in the deep space. And NASA astronauts will continue to fly on Soyuz, and their Russian counterparts will use Crew Dragon and Starliner; The idea is to make sure everyone knows how all the different spaceships work.
When will the crew dragon transport people in space?
SpaceX and Boeing plan to launch their first crewed missions later this year, but if there were additional delays, the flights could come back next year. NASA plans to buy more Russian Soyuz seats.
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