[ad_1]
NASA astronauts are preparing to travel in the new space taxi, and will be on a mission that will last more than a month, rather than a week, to assist the crew aboard the International Space Station, the agency said. American space.
It is scheduled to launch on May 27 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and will arrive at the International Space Station the following day. The mission, the first human transport ship for SpaceX, is the company’s ultimate test before NASA can certify its Crew Dragon capsule for flights. Regular
Transportation veterans are scheduled
Space Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are the first astronauts to be launched from American soil since the end of the shuttle program in 2011.
The mission’s extension allows Hurley and Behnken to help replace the station’s batteries, a task that requires a walk in outer space that current International Space Station station resident Chris Cassidy cannot do. If only.
SpaceX and Boeing Co received a total of $ 7 billion to build separate crew transport systems under the crew program
Commercial, NASA’s pioneering campaign to use the private sector for ISS missions and curb its dependence on the Russian Soyuz missile.
“We are currently supporting the station as a minimum,” said Beidken and Hurley. “We are likely to delay that operation until more NASA crew members are available.”
Kirk Sherman, director of NASA’s ISS program, said the agency is building throughout the Hurley and Behnken mission on how fast SpaceX is finishing preparations in its next capsule.
The delay in the development of SpaceX and Boeing vehicles led NASA to expand its dependence on Russia, forcing the space agency to buy additional seats on the Soyuz rocket to transport more astronauts into space.
[ad_2]
