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Three NASA crewmembers and a Japanese astronaut will launch aboard a SpaceX rocket on Saturday, bound for the International Space Station in the program’s first six-month routine mission since the United States resumed manned space flight in May after nine years of dependence on Russia.
NASA officially certified as safe Tuesday the Crew Dragon capsule developed for the regular transportation of astronauts by SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk that brought two astronauts to the ISS in May and back to Earth again in August without major incidents. .
“I am very proud to say that we are returning regular manned spaceflight launches to US soil in an American rocket and spacecraft,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.
Liftoff is planned for 7:49 p.m. Saturday (6:19 a.m. IST Sunday) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with American astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi on board.
As of Tuesday night, the weather outlook for Saturday was good.
They are expected to arrive at the ISS eight hours later, at 09:20 GMT Sunday (2:50 pm IST Sunday).
The mission marks a culmination for SpaceX, setting it up as NASA’s favorite transportation provider, and so far the most reliable, as the agency awaits Boeing’s Starliner capsule, which has been delayed in testing and is not expected to be ready sooner. of the next year. .
SpaceX has been operating the space station refueling flights with the cargo version of the Dragon since 2012.
“Over the next 15 months, we will conduct seven Dragon crew and cargo missions for NASA,” SpaceX’s chief of manned flights, Benji Reed, said during a phone call Tuesday.
“That means that (starting in December) from Crew-1, there will be a continued presence of SpaceX Dragons in orbit.”
The next manned mission is expected to take off in late March 2021, with one European, one Japanese and two American crew.
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