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The launch from Cape Canaveral was carried out successfully, at 1:27 pm Monday (Italian time). The bad weather generated by tropical storm Eta had been postponed for a day the debut of the first commercial trip to the ISS space station. And it is a historic journey for human flight to orbit, marking the new course of development of cosmic activities. The Crew Dragon spacecraft from the Space X Crew-1 mission founded by Elon Musk, Cin a board the four astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, scientist Shannon Walker and Japanese Soichi Nogochi, provides NASA’s first transportation service as a taxi. Glover is a rookie, all the other veterans, and Nogoci, in addition to being the first international passenger aboard a private spaceship, is also the only one with shuttle and Soyuz experience; therefore, in your curriculum you can boast of an astronaut record on three different spacecraft. The arrival of the crew to the ISS is scheduled for 5 am (Italian time) on Tuesday.
Public money and private company
For the first time, nine years after the shuttle’s retirement, American astronauts fly back in an American spacecraft. Until now, NASA paid a lucrative ticket to the Russian space agency Roscosmos to launch them onto the ISS. The last contract for the October Soyuz mission was $ 86 million for a single seat. Thus, for nine years he depended on Roscomos to get to the ISS for which he had spent a hundred billion dollars to build. This has been generating discontent in Congress for some time. But both the political world and NASA had meanwhile embraced the idea of funding Elon Musk’s private initiative to create a vector and spacecraft that would bring supplies to the station, testing technology that, evolved, could also carry astronauts. This was Musk’s goal and finally in 2014 he obtained a $ 2.6 billion loan from NASA. to build Crew Dragon. At the same time, NASA guaranteed Boeing $ 4.2 billion to build another capsule, Starliner, to have that double chance that was lost with the Shuttle and that paralyzed American human flights for a long time. Boeing received more money because it started from scratch, while Space X had already benefited from the resources allocated for the cargo version of the Dragon. which now, with various improvements, has become habitable. Each contract includes six flights to the station. So, NASA now pays only for transportation services to Space X, which is responsible for the activities and owner of the vehicles, rockets, and spacecraft.
Aircraft carrier and capsule debut
The Dragon Crew-1 mission will last 180 days. The spacecraft on flights to ISS houses four astronauts but is designed to house seven. Its flight is fully automatic managed by on-board computers, but astronauts can intervene if necessary. Both the Falcon-9 aircraft carrier and the Crew Dragon capsule are new, on their first flight, but on the next mission. NASA has authorized Space X to reuse both, with great economic benefits for society. Only the first stage of the aircraft carrier that lands at Cape Canaveral or on an ocean platform as in this case is recovered. The Californian company now has a proven recovery and reuse experience, having already completed the operation in 65 missions. For the Falcon-9, this is the 98th launch. Crew Dragon’s first test with two astronauts on board took place last May and its success gave the green light to the start of commercial missions.
On the path of Mars
Hopefully, Crew-2’s second expedition is scheduled for March 2021. Meanwhile Boeing is also preparing to launch its Starliner spacecraft scheduled for next December. He will run out of men and will have to show that he can reach the station and return to Earth without problems, as did not happen in December last year. Back then, bugs in the computer software were destroying the vehicle and preventing it from connecting to the ISS. The most important mistake had to do with the clock that marked the computer’s orders. and only by intervening from the ground were the controllers able to transmit new commands, avoid the worst and allow the return with a soft landing in the desert of White Sands, New Mexico. Subsequent investigations concluded that it was necessary to carry out eighty modifications to make the capsule safe. It is also designed to fly fully automatically and is also home to seven astronauts. It is also reusable. If the following test is positive, the first Starliner inhabited flight is indicated for June 2021. In the meantime, it is the Dragon Crew moment that marks the triumph of Elon Musk’s projects and dreams and, at the same time, his first step to then start missions to the Moon and then to Mars, as he likes to tell.
November 16, 2020 (change November 16, 2020 | 02:16)
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