With Crew Dragon, SpaceX overtakes Boeing and NASA frees itself from Russia
Success for the launch of Crew Dragon, the SpaceX spacecraft that is transporting four astronauts to the ISS. This is the first mission operated by a private company on behalf of NASA
Successfully launched the Crew Dragon spacecraft: first taxi flight by SpaceX (Elon Musk's aerospace company) for NASA.
After the successful manned test flight in spring , the Crew Dragon spacecraft with 4 astronauts headed for the International Space Station (ISS) was launched Sunday night. The mission is the result of the collaboration between SpaceX and NASA.
A new era of regular dispatch of people to and from the ISS for NASA ushered in with the first mission that sent a crew aboard a privately owned spacecraft into orbit.
All the details.
THE CREW-1 MISSION
Scheduled for Saturday, the launch has been postponed for 24 hours due to strong winds. SpaceX's new Crew Dragon capsule, which the crew dubbed Resilience, took off from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 7:27 pm Sunday evening (00:27 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. .
The astronauts are the three Americans Michael Hopkins, mission commander, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker and the Japanese Soichi Noguchi. The latter made his third journey into space after previously flying the US shuttle in 2005 and Soyuz in 2009.
"It's a great day for the United States of America, and a great day for Japan," NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said at a post-launch press conference.
Twelve minutes after takeoff, at an altitude of 124 miles (200 kilometers) and a speed of 16,800 miles (27,000 kilometers) per hour, the capsule successfully separated from the second stage of the rocket.
A NEW ERA OF HUMAN EXPLORATION OF SPACE
United States Vice President Mike Pence attended the departure in Florida, commenting: "a new era of human space exploration". The successful launch was also hailed by President Donald Trump ("great!") And President-elect Joe Biden ("testament to the power of science and what we can achieve by harnessing our innovation, ingenuity and determination" ).
NASA-SPACEX PARTNERSHIP WITH CREW DRAGON SEALED
The US space agency is calling flight its first "operational" mission for a system of rockets and crew vehicles, which has been in the works for 10 years. It represents a new era of spacecraft developed and operated by private companies rather than NASA to send Americans into orbit.
Sunday's launch, operated by a Falcon 9 rocket, will be the first of six under the contract between SpaceX and NASA.
In 2014, NASA awarded $ 3.1 billion to SpaceX and $ 4.5 billion to Boeing to develop space capsules, pioneering a contract model that allows the space agency to purchase astronaut seats from the two companies.
PAYMENT FROM RUSSIANS
Today's flight also ensures that the space agency has a way to launch its astronauts to the International Space Station from the United States.
"I am extremely proud to say that we are resuming regular human space flights launched from American soil," said the head of the agency, Jim Bridenstine.
Since 2011, NASA has been forced to rely on the Russian space agency, purchasing seats on board the old Soyuz spacecraft for up to $ 85 million per passage.
Now, NASA has another option to send its astronauts into space on the Crew Dragon, where the price of a seat is around $ 55 million, according to a government audit.
CREW DRAGON'S FIRST TIME FOR SPACEX
But the flight of the Crew Dragon, in addition to being the first since 2011 and the retirement of the American space shuttles, is also the first to put such a large crew into orbit.
The only taxi available for the ISS meanwhile, the Russian Soyuz capsule has a maximum capacity of three seats.
As The Verge pointed out , Crew Dragon is the first vehicle that NASA has certified for the transport of humans since the Space Shuttle and the first private spacecraft to receive this designation.
THE DELAY OF BOEING
But as we said, NASA may soon have even more options to fly its astronauts. Since the SpaceX vehicle will not be the only option.
Boeing is also developing its own Starliner spacecraft, although it lags behind Elon Musk's company. Boeing's Starliner capsule suffered a flight anomaly during its test flight in December . At the end of an investigation, NASA made 80 corrections. A new unmanned flight is planned for early 2021, before a first manned mission in June.
This means that SpaceX will be NASA's main launch provider for now.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/con-crew-dragon-spacex-sorpassa-boeing-e-la-nasa-si-affranca-dalla-russia/ on Tue, 17 Nov 2020 05:58:24 +0000.