First SpaceX mission to astronauts for International Space Station scheduled for June 2019

NASA expects the first SpaceX mission aboard the International Space Station to take place in June 2019.

The mission will mark the first crew launch of an American laboratory at the orbiting laboratory since the United States abandoned its space shuttle program in 2011.

For years, NASA astronauts have been coming and going between the ISS and the ISS aboard the Russian space shuttle Soyuz. For these flights, the United States had to spend about $ 80 million per seat.

Boeing and SpaceX were awarded astronaut shuttle contracts to the ISS in 2014 as part of the Crew Commercial Crew program.

NASA expects SpaceX and Boeing to transport astronauts into low Earth orbit for regular missions of approximately six months duration. Once the commercial crew program is operational, NASA astronauts will be able to travel to the orbiting laboratory and return to US-made vehicles at a relatively lower cost.

Last month, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk promised to send his first astronauts to orbit on schedule. The first crewed flight of the ISS aboard a Boeing spacecraft is scheduled to follow in August 2019. The timing is timely as NASA's contract with the Russian Space Agency will end in November 2019.

The schedule of these manned flights has already been changed several times, but the US space agency announced Thursday that it would provide monthly updates.

"This new reporting process of our calendar is better; Nevertheless, the launch dates will remain uncertain and we expect that they will change as we get closer to launch, "said Phil McAlister, NASA's director of space flight development in a statement released. Phys.org.

"These are new spacecraft, and the engineering teams have a lot of work to do before the systems are ready to fly."

Both missions will be considered as tests. The astronauts who will be embarked on each flight will spend two weeks at the ISS before returning to Earth.

To prepare these crewed flights, SpaceX will conduct an unmanned test in January 2019. Boeing will conduct its tests in March 2019.

NASA has already named the first nine astronauts who will board the ISS in SpaceX and Boeing vehicles. These are veterans of the shuttle Michael Hopkins, Bob Behnken and Douglas Hurley,

For launch, SpaceX will use the Falcon 9 rocket on which is fixed a Crew Dragon capsule. The Boeing Starliner, meanwhile, will be launched in space by an Atlas V rocket