SpaceX: Expert discusses 'milestone' at upcoming launch
When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they’ll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Elon Musk’s space exploration company has partnered up with NASA to deliver four astronauts to the International Space Station. In a first for space travel, the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying the crew into space will have been recycled from a previous trip. Likewise, the iconic SpaceX Falcon 9 booster rocket that will be used for the mission has also flown used before with burn marks from the past launch still visible.
Speaking from the launch site, a CBS reporter Mark Strassman told the news network: “Take a look at the bottom of the rocket.
“That black stuff covering the first stage that is soot which means this rocket has flown before.
“That is not all so has the capsule that the four astronauts will be riding inside.
“It is the first time that both will be reused to fly people.”
JUST IN: Elon Musk’s SpaceX chosen by NASA for historic mission to the Moon
He described the Space X launch as another “milestone” for a company that is “revolutionising” space travel.
The astronauts set to ride on the historic launch, dubbed Crew-2, are Americans Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and EuropeanThomas Pesquet from the European Space Agency (ESA).
The crew will man the orbiting research facility known as the International Space Station.
ISS Expedition 65 will relieve the stations current inhabitants who travelled there on Crew-1 last November.
SpaceX tease Falcon 9 and Dragon ahead of flights
Weather permitting, to astronauts of Crew-2 will depart from the Kennedy Space Center at 10.49 am UK time (5.49am EDT).
Docking with the ISS by 10.10 am UK time (5.10am EDT) the following morning.
After a four days turnaround those astronauts who make up Crew-1, Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker from NASA, and JAXA’s Soichi Noguchi, will begin the journey back home to Earth.
In total, the trip will take the departing astronauts just seven hours with their spacecraft expected to splash down just off the Floridian coast.
Though, NASA stated: “Their return date and time are dependent on having a healthy spacecraft and favourable weather in the selected splashdown zone.”
Today had originally been earmarked for the launch but poor weather caused the countdown to be delayed with tomorrow morning providing the next opening for the groundbreaking endeavor.
You will be able to follow the launch here on Express.co.uk, courtesy of SpaceX and NASA.
SpaceX will host a live broadcast on its website and YouTube account, and NASA will closely follow the mission on its round-the-clock education streaming on NASA TV.
Source: Read Full Article