SpaceX and NASA are ready to send their next team of astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) and October 23 is set as the first launch date. The mission, named Crew-1, was originally planned for late September.
“Crew-1 will launch in late October to meet space travel for the upcoming rotation of the Soyuz crew and best meet the needs of the International Space Station,” NASA said in a recent statement.
The astronaut team will include Commander Michael Hopkins, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialist Shannon Walker, all from NASA, as well as mission specialist Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The mission will launch from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The announcement comes on the heels of the completion of Demo-2 earlier this month, in which veteran astronauts Bob Bhenkin and Doug Hurley successfully made a trip to the ISS in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule after launching aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The capsule was developed as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program and was the first crew flight test of a commercial and operated human space system.
The purpose of Demo-2’s mission was to ensure that all of SpaceX’s systems were ready for regular travel to the space station, and its attainment has returned human spaceflight capabilities to American soil. Earlier, U.S. astronauts purchased seats on Russian rockets to reach orbit up to about $ 90 million dollars each. NASA hopes in the future to create an exchange system for flights – trading cities instead of payments.
Crew-1 will be the first of six operational crew missions planned between NASA and SpaceX as part of a $ 2.6 billion contract signed in 2014. A third crew mission, Crew-2, is already planned for Spring 2021. NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet were selected to be on board and are currently training with SpaceX.
