NASA, SpaceX Target Historic Spaceflight Despite Epidemic
NASA and SpaceX said on Friday that they are advancing plans
to launch astronauts into space from US soil for the first time in nearly a
decade later this month, despite the Coronavirus epidemic.
Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley, both veterans of the
space shuttle program that closed in 2011, will launch from the Kennedy Space
Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on May 27.
If the mission succeeds, the United States will achieve its
goal of not having to purchase seats on Russia's Soyuz missiles to give
astronauts flights to the International Space Station (ISS).
It is also an important stage in NASA's new economic
paradigm: The Space Agency has spent billions in contracts with both SpaceX and
Boeing to develop spaceships, each of which will have to make six round trips
to the International Space Station.
This model is supposed to provide taxpayers with financial
black holes for past programs, as well as some programs that haven't yet come -
notably the Giant Space Launch System missile that is supposed to return NASA
to the moon but suffers from cost overruns and scheduling delays.
NASA Postal Director Jim Pridenstein told reporters that the
SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule would be only the fifth class of US spacecraft to
take humans into orbit, after Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle
programs.
"If you look at the world, it will be the ninth time in history that we place humans in an entirely new spacecraft," said Breidenstein.
"We will do it here amid the Coronavirus epidemic. I will tell you that this is a high priority mission for the United States of America."
NASA said Pinkin and Hurley, who had been training for the
"Demo-2" mission for years, would join the International Space
Station (ISS) and would stay there for a period of one to four months,
depending on the date of the next mission. Steve Stitch.
Crew Dragon can stay in orbit for four months (119 days).
Hurley, who was the pilot on the last space shuttle mission,
admitted that it was "disappointing" that the launch would not be a
public affair, as crowds from Cape Canaveral were discouraged to watch the
scene.
"We will not have the luxury of our family and friends there in Kennedy to see the launch but this is clearly the right thing to do in the current environment," he said.
Win for SpaceX
The mission is a major event for SpaceX, the company founded
by Elon Musk, which also leads and founded Tesla.
His company, which started in 2002, has now overtaken Boeing
space giant, which failed the mission of its unmanned demonstration of its
Starliner spacecraft last year and will have to start again.
SpaceX, which has received billions of dollars from NASA
since the late 2000s, has been providing shipping to the ISS since 2012, and
has established itself as a pioneer in the private space sector thanks to its
reusable missile, the Falcon 9.
"I will feel some relief while in orbit, and I will feel more comfortable when they arrive at the station, and obviously I will start to sleep again when they return safely on the planet," said Gwen. Shotwell, the company's chief operating officer.
Of course, the epidemic affected the program, but Shotwell
said all precautions had been taken to protect the astronauts.
"We make sure that only the key individuals are close by. They wear masks and gloves. We clean the training facility twice a day.
"I think we are doing a great job of ensuring that we do not affect the safety or health of the astronauts' lives."
Half of SpaceX's engineers are working remotely, and on
launch day, NASA personnel will be spaced out in the mission control room six
feet (two meters) away.
The takeoff is scheduled to take off at 4:42 pm (2042 GMT)
on May 27, and the space station is to dock after about 19 hours, on May 28.
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