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In the first routine flight of a series that NASA hopes to extend, SpaceX today launched four astronauts from the United States to the International Space Station, a mission that certifies the loss of the monopoly of space access held by Russia for nine years.
Three Americans, Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, besides the japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, took off after 19:27 local [21:27 horas en Chile] from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew will arrive at their destination on the International Space Station (ISS) around 04:00 GMT on Tuesday, joining the two Russian and one American astronauts on board, and will stay there for six months.
This “operational” flight continues the successful demonstration mission carried out from May to August, in which two American astronauts were taken to the ISS and then safely brought to Earth by SpaceX.
The Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence, will attend the launch in person.
The Dragon capsule SpaceX is the second device currently capable of reaching the ISS, along with the highly reliable Soyuz Russian, which has been driving all visitors to the station since 2011, after the United States interrupted its manned flights nine years ago. A second shuttle, made by Boeing, could be operational in a year.
NASA hopes, however, to continue cooperating with Russia. To do this, he proposed to provide places for his cosmonauts in future missions and intends that the Americans continue to use the Soyouz regularly.
But the negotiations drag on. “We want an exchange of places,” NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said at a news conference Friday. “The talks are ongoing,” he limited himself to saying, as he has been doing for months.
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