NASA and SpaceX send long-awaited manned mission to space

On Saturday, Elon Musk’s SpaceX will launch a manned mission to the ISS. It is the first official round for Nasa, which now wants to send American astronauts into space on a regular basis.

If all goes well, the Resilience space capsule will depart from Kennedy Space Center at 19:49 local time. Officially the mission is called Crew 1. It is the first time since the last flight of the Space Shuttle that the American space organization Nasa has restarted routine space flights.

Operation Launch America

Launched earlier this year Musk in collaboration with Nasa Already Operation Launch America, a test flight of SpaceX’s capsule, Demo 2. Two astronauts spent two months orbiting Earth on the ISS. In doing so, they tested the hardware and software of the Dragon capsule and the Falcon 9 rockets that delivered them safely back and forth.

This time there are four astronauts. Three Americans and a Japanese astronaut will fly to the ISS. Michael Hopkins is the commander, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi are technical specialists. They chose the name Resilience, resilience in Dutch, to indicate the global fight against the corona virus.

“If you look at the definition of resilience, you see that you function well in stressful times, that you are facing challenges and can handle stressful events. And I think we can agree that 2020 was a particularly challenging year. A global pandemic, economic problems, social unrest and isolation, ”Hopkins said during the press moment.

General rehearsal

Managers at Cape Canaveral had three out of four astronauts conduct some sort of general rehearsal this week. That happened on Thursday. Then the astronauts and engineers went all over the plane to assess whether it is ready for launch. The spacecraft subsequently received an official certificate.

“I am extremely proud that we will soon be able to return to space regularly from US soil with an US missile,” said Nasa-director Jim Bridenstine.

“This certificate is a milestone for Nasa and SpaceX. It shows how much progress we have made by partnering with the commercial industry. ”

Who is on the ISS now?

The Crew 1 astronauts complete the crew on the ISS. Katheen Rubins and the Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryshikov and Sergey Kusverchkov are already present there. They are in orbit about 400 kilometers above the earth. Rubins has been there since October 14 and came on board with a Russian Soyuz. It was the last Soyuz the Americans bought.

There is about a 70 percent chance that Crew 1 can leave on Saturday. Much depends on the weather. Hurricane Eta, which passed in Florida on Thursday, is still leaving some traces and could cause problems in the Atlantic Ocean. Currently, Eta is a tropical storm, but it can still cause Crew 1 to be postponed. A second chance may be provided on Sunday.

Also read: Launch America: Why SpaceX’s First Manned Mission Is So Important to NASA

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