SpaceX will send a manikin to the space station at a major crewed capsule test

NASA gave the go-ahead for the first test flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS).

The mission will begin on Saturday, March 2 at 2:48 (ET) (Friday, March 1 at 11:48 pm ET) and instead of delivering only supplies to the ISS, as SpaceX usually does this with his usual Dragon spacecraft, this time around him & # 39; I will also be putting on a dummy wearing a spacesuit.

No, it's not another crazy waterfall imagined by the flamboyant CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk. It's Musk, after all, who sent a model wearing a spacesuit – driving a Tesla Roadster – to Mars during the spectacular launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket in 2018.

This time, the model will receive a set of scientific sensors that will provide the SpaceX team with important data ahead of their plans to introduce humans into the Crew Dragon capsule for travel to and from the ISS.

Crew Dragon, also known as Dragon 2, is the successor to the Dragon freighter spaceship carrying supplies to the ISS since 2012. It can carry up to seven crew members and, as the Dragon, joined the space with a Falcon 9 rocket launch.

Model moment

Hans Koenigsmann, Vice President, Mission Insurance for SpaceX, has been temporarily asked about the appropriate term for the space dummy.

"Do I say" dummy ", is that the right word?" Asked the executive.

"ATD, we prefer not to call them dummies," said Kathy Lueders, head of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. ATD stands for anthropomorphic test apparatus.

With confirmed terminology, SpaceX will now work hard to complete preparations for the weekend launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Assuming everything goes as planned, Demonstration Mission 1, or DM-1, will mark the very first launch at the space station of a US rocket and spacecraft built and operated for commercial purposes designed for the human.

The next release of Crew Dragon is scheduled for April to test its emergency stop system designed to save the crew in case of problematic launch. If this goes as planned, SpaceX will seek to incorporate humans into the crew dragon, although no date has yet been set for the long-awaited mission.

In anticipation of the arrival of the caspule next week, astronauts aboard the ISS used a computer-assisted trainer to familiarize themselves with the Crew Dragon rendez-vous and docking systems, as well as urgency and departure of vehicles.

The next launch of SpaceX comes just a week after the last one, which allowed it to place several payloads into orbit and, as usual, to see the Falcon 9 booster land safely on terra firma.