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Abigail BanerjiMay 05, 2020 08:56:41 IST
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the private aerospace company SpaceX are preparing to launch astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, almost 10 years (2011) after the last Space Shuttle Program took off from the Kennedy Space Center, from US soil.
The launch is supposed to take place on Wednesday, May 27 at 4.32 p.m. EDT, or Thursday, May 28 at 2.02 a.m. IST from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Falcon 9 rocket prepares to take off. Image credit: SpaceX / Flickr
But it will not be easy and there will be risks.
Either the Coronavirus pandemic or the team of skeletons that will be working in the field on launch day; or the fact that it is the maiden voyage of the Dragon crew capsule.
Human space flight is returning to America! 🇺🇸🚀
WHO: @StroBehnken AND @Astro_Doug
THAN: #LaunchAmerica mission
WHEN: May 27
WHERE: @NASAKennedy
HOW: on board @SpaceXThe Crew Dragon spacecraftFind out when to watch NASA television coverage of this historic mission: https://t.co/wkpFV5QgWi pic.twitter.com/mX5cphCZvF
– NASA (@NASA) May 1, 2020
“My heart is sitting here (pointing to my throat), and I think it will stay there until we safely retrieve Bob and Doug from the International Space Station,” said Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, at a press conference reported Space flight. “But between now and then, there is still work to be done.”
Crew Dragon in the Cape undergoes final preparations before the first flight to the @Spacial station with @POT astronauts on board pic.twitter.com/uMpmroFDD6
– SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 1, 2020
The Historic American Space Shuttle
the Space Shuttle Program It was a reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system that operated from 1981 to 2011. Its official name for the program was Space Transportation System (STS). It has launched manned satellites and interplanetary probes, as well as the hubble space telescope, and assisted in the construction and service of the International Space Station. However, the program was now flawless. With two major fatal disasters, the show was finally closed forever.
On January 28, 1986, the STS-51-L disintegrated 73 seconds after its launch, due to equipment failure and killed seven astronauts on board. Again, on February 1, 2003, a spacecraft disintegrated during re-entry and killed all seven STS-107 crew members. Hurley, the spacecraft commander of SpaceX’s Dragon crew capsule, had served as a pilot on the shuttle’s last mission.
A commercial space program
After the space shuttle debacle, NASA used Russian Soyuz rockets to take its astronauts to the ISS. This SpaceX mission is part of the Commercial Crew Mission, where NASA has private companies collaborate with them to develop and operate spacecraft. The program started in 2010. Boeing and SpaceX are the two companies that work on spacecraft that can send crew members to the International Space Station (ISS).
Boeing has had a lot of trouble developing a safe and functional crew capsule that can take NASA astronauts to the ISS. His last flight test was a massive failure And NASA has even opened an investigation into this disastrous test. Boeing Co’s Starliner CST-100 astronaut capsule had a successful launch from its first unmanned test mission, but an automatic timer error prevented the spacecraft from reaching the correct orbit for it to encounter and dock with the space station. He is supposed to have another test flight later this year.
Since 2011 (when SpaceX joined the program), NASA has awarded funds to the company owned by Elon Musk for a sum of $ 3.1 billion to develop, test, and fly the Dragon spacecraft reported CNBC. SpaceX has also supplemented its research with its own funding, however no official figures have been provided.
This is the plan for the launch day of SpaceX’s Demo-2 mission with NASA astronauts, scheduled for May 27: pic.twitter.com/jvU6vHdA0r
– Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz) May 1, 2020
“The investments that we have made in SpaceX and the investment that SpaceX has made in itself have really resulted, I think, in something that will be very beneficial, not only for human space exploration, but also beneficial for the economy,” NASA said. . administrator Jim Bridenstine.
The Dragon will launch on the Falcon 9 rocket at around 17,000 mph in low Earth orbit, and within 24 hours, it will be in the correct position to automatically dock with the ISS. While the crew capsule is designed to do this without being supervised by astronauts, the docking will be monitored, and if something went wrong, the crew could take control of it.
Demo 1
On March 2, 2019, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule was launched, and on March 8, 2019, it completed its first unmanned flight test by docking on the ISS and returning to Earth after a five-day mission. This mission was called Demo-1. This was the first spacecraft to be built, operated, and launched by a private American company, and it was also the first crew capsule to dock on the ISS alone. With the success of this mission, the United States was one step closer to restarting its own human space flight program.
Demo 2
After a successful first test mission, the next mission to the ISS has been named Demo-2. The spacecraft is supposed to carry around seven passengers, but for its first test, only two astronauts will be in the capsule.
If all goes well with this mission, NASA will approve SpaceX to bring other astronauts to the ISS, along with the commercial refueling runs it has been doing since 2008. This will reduce NASA’s reliance on the Soyuz program and be more costly. . long-term cash too. It will also take them one step further to complete the Artemis mission, and the next step is humans on Mars.
The Falcon 9 rocket built in the USA USA
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is a partially reusable two-stage orbit launch vehicle. Its first stage is capable of re-entering the atmosphere and landing vertically after separating from the second stage, making it partially reusable. SpaceX successfully landed its first stage during its twentieth flight in December 2015. The rocket’s second stage has a single engine that can deliver its payload to any required orbit. The engine can be restarted multiple times to deliver multiple payloads in different orbits.
A two stages to orbit or the two-stage rocket launch vehicle is a spacecraft in which two different stages provide propulsion consecutively to reach orbital speed.
Quarantine
As standard procedure dictates, before the actual launch, astronauts will be quarantined two weeks earlier. This will be tightened due to the current coronavirus pandemic that has swept the world. NASA and SpaceX employees sometimes had to be quarantined as positive cases were found.
Shotwell reported Space flighthas outlined Some of the precautions they were taking during the press conference: “We have had Bob and Doug here for training and we make sure that only essential personnel are around them. They are wearing masks and gloves. We are cleaning the training facility twice a day “.
NASA also ensures that the crew, working with astronauts during their flight simulations, are being serviced. “We are taking temperatures. We wear masks in public areas. We are also socially estranged. We have at least half of our engineering staff working from home,” Shotwell said.
NASA astronauts during a pre-flight test in SpaceX Crew Dragon. Image credit: Twitter
“Obviously with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are taking extra precautions for all teams supporting launch and all phases of flight,” said Steve Stich, deputy director of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, reported Al Jazeera. “So in the various control rooms, we have designed those rooms to be at least two meters apart from any other on a screen-watching console.”
Hurley in an interview with CBS News, He discussed the steps he and his fellow travelers are taking (such as following the rules set by NASA and its flight surgeons), as well as those taken by NASA.
Hurley said: “We are already in a kind of quarantine bubble that includes both of us and, of course, our immediate families as well. We will arrive at launch with similar precautions. It is not much different than what we would do for a crew that would be launched on a Soyuz outside Baikonur (Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan), or what we did when we launched on space shuttles. ” When they fly to Florida, they will use “NASA transportation to try to minimize our exposure.”
ISS is understaffed
The space station is being manned by an American astronaut, Chris Cassidy and two Russian cosmonauts, Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. The orbiting station typically has three to six people, but can comfortably accommodate around nine astronauts. However, in 2009, the ISS was able support 13 crew members at one point.
If all goes well, Hurley and Behnken’s trip to the ISS will mean that the occupants will have more help to conduct their zero gravity investigations and experiments. Reuters reported that the astronauts planned mission has been extended from one to now which lasts between one and four months. It will also mean that they will have more time for a spacewalk, which is exciting, to change the ISS batteries.
The Dragon capsule is being prepared at a NASA site prior to launch on May 27. Image credit: Twitter
“We currently support the station with the bare minimum,” Bridenstine said. “Without the presence of Behnken and Hurley, we would probably postpone such an operation until additional NASA crew members are available.”
NASA to its viewers
NASA is launching its own astronauts from American soil after an 11-year gap, and if this were a normal year, it would have been a great time for the country. Something similar to the excitement that people had shown during the initial phase of the Apollo mission.
But this is not a normal year and these are not normal situations, and NASA has asked all potential viewers to adhere to the closing rules established by the United States government.
Futurism reported NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said: “We are very excited about the launch of a commercial crew. We are asking people to join us in this launch, but to do so from home. We ask people not to trip to the Kennedy Space Center. “
He also said that people who break this rule and pile up on the beach, or in the area near the center, should deal with local authorities. Space.com reported that the Space Center will also be closed to the public.
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