The SpaceX crew capsule flies to the space station with the Ripley test dummy

The all-new US capsule for astronauts flew to the International Space Station following a very ambitious SpaceX test flight.

The only passenger was a life-size test dummy, named Ripley after the group's main character. Extraterrestrial movies.

SpaceX must take its first steps into the capsule of its Dragon crew before being able to board people later this year.

The latter, the most flashy of dragons, is on a fast track to reach the space station tomorrow, just 27 hours after takeoff.

It will spend five days docked at the outpost in orbit, before making a retro-style dive into the Atlantic next Saturday – all the essential training for the next space demo, maybe this northern summer, when two astronauts will dress.

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said the launch was "very stressful", but he hopes the capsule will be ready to carry people later this year.

"To be honest, I'm a little emotionally exhausted," Musk told reporters just an hour after takeoff. "We have to go to the station, we have to come back, but until now it has worked … we have adopted the riskiest elements."

The NASA Administrator, Jim Bridenstine, has termed it "great night for the United States of America".

"We are about to launch US astronauts on US rockets again for the first time since the withdrawal of space shuttles in 2011," said Bridenstine, who made a special tour of the launch pad. on the eve of the launch. , by Musk.

About 5,000 NASA employees, contractors, tourists and journalists gathered in the early hours of the morning at the Kennedy Space Center with the SpaceX launch team, while the Falcon 9 rocket took off before the launch. local time from the same place where Apollo rockets and space shuttles flew. .

Across the country, at SpaceX Mission Control in Hawthorne, Calif., The company's employees went wild, applauding every step of the way until the capsule reached orbit.

The two NASA astronauts, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, will attach to the second demonstration of space in July. Shortly after takeoff, Musk asked them, "What do you think of flying on board?"

It's been eight years since Hurley and three other astronauts made the last Space Shuttle mission, and launches from Florida have stopped.

NASA has turned to private companies, SpaceX and Boeing, and provided US $ 8 billion for the construction and operation of crew caps for the transport of astronauts to and from from the space station. Now Russian rockets are the only way to bring astronauts to the 400-kilometer outpost. Soyuz bills have exploded over the years; NASA currently pays $ 82 million per seat.

Boeing aims to perform the first test flight of its Starliner capsule in April, possibly with astronauts on board in August.

Bridenstine said he is confident that astronauts will fly on a dragon or starliner – or both – by the end of the year. But he stressed that there was no rush.

"We are not in a race for space," he said. "This race is over, we went to the moon and we won, it's done, we are now in a position where we can take our time and make sure we get it right."

SpaceX has already made 16 trips to the space station using cargo dragons. The white Dragon crew is slightly larger – 8m up and down – and much more sophisticated and secure. Musk said the redesigned capsule had "hardly a role in common" with its predecessor.

It has four seats, three windows, touchscreen computer screens and survival equipment, as well as eight stopping motors to pull the capsule safely in an emergency. Solar cells are mounted on the spacecraft to produce electrical energy, unlike the protruding solar wings of cargo dragons.

"It's an incredibly stylish vehicle from the inside and very easy to use," Hurley told reporters a few hours before take-off. He is amazed to see that the Dragon has only 30 buttons and touch screens, compared to the 2,000 switches and breakers in the space shuttle cockpit.

For the test, the model Ripley was attached to the extreme left seat, dressed in the company's bright spacesuit. The remaining seats were empty, with the exception of a small earth-plush toy, which was free to float when it reached weightlessness.

"Super high tech zero g indicator added just before launch!" Musk tweeted. True to his word, the toy rose without weight above the seat once the capsule in orbit.

Up to seven astronauts could enter, but four will be the norm once launched flights, which will allow a bit of cargo space. About 200 kg of supplies are mounted on this flight.

The capsule is designed to automatically hang on and off at the space station. Dragon Cargo must be maneuvered with the robotic arm of the station.

Like Ripley, the capsule is equipped with sensors. Engineers will carefully monitor the noise, vibration and other constraints of the spacecraft while monitoring life support, communication and propulsion systems. Some equipment requires more work, or even a redesign, before serving human passengers.

"We will learn a great deal from this mission," said Kathy Lueders, Nasa's Commercial Team Program Manager.

The members of the flight operations team, some of whom are novices, also need this six-day trial period, according to Robert Cabana, director of the Kennedy Space Center.

The goal is to make the next demonstration flight, with Hurley and Behnken, as safe as possible. The most immediate objective is to avoid harming the space station and its three occupants: American, Canadian and Russian.

"To see such success definitely gives us a lot of confidence in the future," Behnken said.

Despite SpaceX's success in recovering and reusing its rockets, NASA insists that new SpaceX boosters be used for the crew's capsule flights. The first floor used today landed on a floating platform in the Atlantic after takeoff. SpaceX plans to recycle the new flying capsule for a high altitude abandonment test, with a reminder launched and retrieved a week ago.

– AP