SpaceX is ready to send astronauts into space on their first operational crewed flight

SpaceX is set to send four astronauts into low Earth orbit as part of its first operational crewed flight to the International Space Station (ISS).

The crew, made up of a Japanese astronaut and three Americans, is scheduled to take off shortly after midnight Sunday, in a rocket and capsule system built by billionaire businessman Elon Musk’s aerospace company.

For NASA, it marks the beginning of using private companies as a “taxi service” to take its crew to and from the space station.

The US space agency announced this week that it had certified SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket to carry astronauts, making it the first commercial human space flight system in history.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a statement: “This is a great honor that inspires confidence in our effort to return to the Moon, travel to Mars, and ultimately help humanity become multi- planetary “.

Since ending its space shuttle program in 2011, NASA has relied on the Russian space agency Roscosmos to transport its astronauts to the space station, at a cost of around US $ 90 million (£ 67 million) per seat.

In 2014, it awarded contracts to SpaceX and Boeing to provide crewed launch services to the space station as part of its Commercial Crew Program.

SpaceX certification ends NASA’s reliance on Russia and is priced at approximately US $ 55 million (£ 40 million) per astronaut.

Phil McAlister, NASA’s director of commercial spaceflight development, said in a statement: “NASA’s partnership with American private industry is changing the arc of human spaceflight history by opening up access to Earth orbit. Baja and the International Space Station to more people, more science and more business opportunities.

“We are truly at the beginning of a new era of manned space flight.”

In May, Elon Musk’s company made history when it became the first private company to send humans into orbit.

American astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley traveled to the space station and returned as part of a mission to demonstrate SpaceX’s ability to safely conduct manned missions.

The current mission, called Crew 1, will see the Crew Dragon capsule take NASA’s Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, as well as Japan’s Soichi Noguchi, to the space station.

The astronauts will spend six months in the orbiting space laboratory, conducting science experiments and performing various other tasks.

The crew will take off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 00:49 UK time on November 15, on a journey that is expected to take around nine hours.

Shortly after liftoff, the Falcon 9 rocket will separate into a first stage and a second stage.

The first stage will return to a SpaceX landing ship parked off the coast of Florida, while the second part of the rocket continues the journey with the Crew Dragon.

Once in orbit, the Crew Dragon will separate from the second stage and travel at around 17,000 mph.

The spacecraft is expected to find and dock with the space station on Sunday at 9:20 am UK time.

The astronauts will join three other space station residents, Kate Rubins of NASA and Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Russia, to be part of the Expedition 64 crew.

Meanwhile, NASA’s other rental taxi service, Boeing, is not expected to carry its first crew until next summer.