Since the end of the shuttle program in 2011, NASA’s astronauts have had to travel to Kazakhstan and hitch a ride on Russian Soyuz capsules in order to reach the International Space Station.
At a reported cost of $80 million per seat, according to The Verge , NASA was keen to find a way to get astronauts back to lifting off from home soil, and so the agency has been working with Boeing and SpaceX to develop and build their own private spacecraft capable of taking humans into space.
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On Wednesday, May 27, SpaceX is set to do just that.
SpaceX will make history with the launch of the Falcon9 heavy rocket with the Dragon crew capsule attached, becoming the first private company to put humans into orbit.
It’s the culmination of six years of research and development, of testing, setbacks, re-engineering, and re-testing, and NASA director Jim Bridenstine told CNBC it’s a huge milestone for the future of the U.S. space program.
“This is a new generation, a new era in spaceflight,” Bridenstine said.
A little over a year ago, the Dragon crew capsule was grounded after an explosion during a test.
Investigators from SpaceX, NASA, the NTSB, the U.S. Air Force, and the FAA combed through the wreckage and spent months analyzing it, finally determining in July that a leak in the spacecraft’s pressurization system led to the destruction of the capsule, CNet reported.
That explosion didn’t set SpaceX back for very long.
In January, the company successfully tested the Dragon capsule’s emergency escape capabilities.
The test was unmanned, but the company said that the test “demonstrated Crew Dragon’s ability to reliably carry crew to safety in the unlikely event of an emergency on ascent.”
And so, the Dragon capsule is finally scheduled for liftoff at 4:33 pm ET on May 27 with two NASA astronauts on board.
As CNBC reported, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley have the honor of manning the Dragon capsule for its inaugural flight.
Both Behnken, 49, and Hurley, 53, have been to space before on shuttle missions, with Hurley involved in another historic moment aboard the last shuttle mission in 2011.
Space travel during the coronavirus pandemic has been a bit different for the astronauts.
While it’s typical for astronauts to go into quarantine before a mission, guidelines have been particularly strict for Hurley and Behnken.
Although the pair officially entered quarantine two weeks before launch, they’ve both been self-isolating since mid-March, CNBC reported.
Several VIPs are expected to be in attendance for the launch, including President Trump and Vice President Pence.
For everybody else, NASA has set up a website called Launch America specifically for the launch. The site will both stream the actual event and provide background content around the mission, including virtual tours of the launch pad and SpaceX’s manufacturing plant.
“This is a moment when we can all look and be inspired,” Bridenstine told The Guardian . “We have a moment in time when we don’t just have to reflect on how difficult things are right now, we can talk about how bright things are going to be in the future.”
h/t: CNBC , The Verge , The Guardian
