NASA is targeting late September for the launch of the first operational commercial crew flight of a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station (ISS).
Crew Dragon commander Michael Hopkins, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialist Shannon Walker — all of NASA — along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) mission specialist Soichi Noguchi will launch on the SpaceX Crew-1 mission, the US space agency said on Wednesday.
The Crew-1 mission will be launched from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
No looking back
- SpaceX in late May created history when it sent two astronauts to the ISS in a test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, called the Demo-2.
That spacecraft that carried two NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to the ISS is set to depart the orbiting laboratory on August 1 and reach Earth on August 2, marking the end of the first crewed mission test for the Elon Musk-led company.
The launch of the SpaceX Crew-1 mission will follow a successful return of the two astronauts from the space station and evaluation of SpaceX Demo-2 test flight. IANS
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