NASA makes May 27 its US independence day from Russian rockets - America's back in the astronaut business after nearly nine years
- Reference: 1587151158
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/17/nasa_spacex_iss/
- Source link:
"NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley will fly on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, lifting off on a Falcon 9 rocket at 4:32 p.m. EDT [2032 GMT] on May 27, from Launch Complex 39A in Florida, for an extended stay at the space station for the Demo-2 mission," NASA said in a [1]blog post .
To mark the occasion, NASA has [2]revived its original worm logo for the flight after a public poll. But members of the public will not be invited to the launch site to view the flight, due to cornavirus restrictions.
BREAKING: On May 27, [3]@NASA will once again launch American astronauts on American rockets from American soil! With our [4]@SpaceX partners, [5]@Astro_Doug and [6]@AstroBehnken will launch to the [7]@Space_Station on the [8]#CrewDragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket. Let's [9]#LaunchAmerica 🇺🇸 [10]pic.twitter.com/RINb3mfRWI — Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) [11]April 17, 2020
The duration of the mission has yet to be determined but its significance is clear: The US will no longer be reliant on Russia - or any other foreign partner - to conduct crewed space missions.
Since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle program in 2011, US astronauts headed to the ISS have had to buy a ride on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. And the price has been considerable.
I'm sorry, Elon. I'm afraid I can't do that... SpaceX touts robo-rides for orbital vacations, lift-off in 2021-ish [12]READ MORE
According to [13]a report from NASA's Office of the Inspector General, "NASA paid an average cost per seat of $55.4 million for the 70 completed and planned missions from 2006 through 2020 with prices ranging from approximately $21.3m to $86m for each round trip."
NASA has been planning for this day for years. In 2014, it awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX for $4.2bn and $2.6bn respectively, in the hope of "ending the nation’s sole reliance on Russia by 2017."
It's taken a bit longer than expected but three years after that target date, the US appears to be ready, once again, to declare independence, at least in the context of spaceflight. SpaceX, founded by South African immigrant Elon Musk, has [14]led the race , while the better-funded Boeing has [15]lagged behind somewhat.
The Demo-2 launch also represents a major milestone for SpaceX: It will be the company's first crewed mission since the firm's founding in 2002. The private space biz conducted an uncrewed test flight of the Crew Dragon in March 2019 to demonstrate the craft's autonomous docking capability. And January 2020, it demonstrated Crew Dragon's launch escape system for emergencies.
Good progress, but 18 years to launch our first humans is a long time. Technology must advance faster or there will be no city on the red planet in our lifetime. [16]https://t.co/uzSpZFFemI [17]pic.twitter.com/IsICexqxtV — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) [18]April 17, 2020
Successful mission completion represents the last major hurdle for the Crew Dragon to be certified under NASA's Commercial Crew program for operational, long-duration missions to the space station. If all goes well, NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi are scheduled to fly on Dragon’s first six-month mission, dubbed Crew-1, later this year.
NASA says a successful mission will allow the agency to continue important research and "lays the groundwork for future exploration of the Moon and Mars with the agency’s Artemis program." ®
Sponsored: [19]How to Build Your Digital Experience Portfolio
[1] https://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew/2020/04/17/launch-date-set-for-first-crew-flight-from-u-s-soil-since-2011/
[2] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/03/nasa_worm_logo_spacex_iss/
[3] https://twitter.com/NASA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[4] https://twitter.com/SpaceX?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[5] https://twitter.com/Astro_Doug?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[6] https://twitter.com/AstroBehnken?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[7] https://twitter.com/Space_Station?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[8] https://twitter.com/hashtag/CrewDragon?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[9] https://twitter.com/hashtag/LaunchAmerica?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[10] https://t.co/RINb3mfRWI
[11] https://twitter.com/JimBridenstine/status/1251178705633841167?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[12] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/18/spacex_space_tourism_autonomous/
[13] https://oig.nasa.gov/docs/IG-20-005.pdf
[14] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/24/space_roundup/
[15] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/07/space_roundup/
[16] https://t.co/uzSpZFFemI
[17] https://t.co/IsICexqxtV
[18] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1251207515703894016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[19] https://go.theregister.co.uk/tl/1936/-8578/how-to-build-your-digital-experience-portfolio?td=wptl1936
Not Fair!
> It will be the company's first crewed mission since the firm's founding in 2002
Stop discriminating against SpaceX! Why you did not mention all those company's crewed missions before the firm's founding in 2002?
I hate the baitclick language "Best/worst/biggest/smallest/the most average since X!" In this case however it seems it works in the other direction.
Safe travels
For any launch, I don't care what company or nation launches it or what nationality of people they are carrying, only that they have a safe journey.
Re: Safe travels
Absolutely. It's still pioneering and risky.
Retro Progress
25-May-1961 US President John F Kennedy challenges America to put a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth before 1970.
24-July-1969 Collins, Aldrin, and Armstrong return safely to Earth after two of them land on the Moon.
Time to accomplish this feat: about 8 years and 2 months.
8-Jul-2011 NASA retires its sole means of human access to low earth orbit.
27-May-2020 NASA plans to return to low earth orbit.
Time to accomplish this feat: about 8 years and 11 months.
Truly the opposite of progress is Congress.
Re: Retro Progress
Apollo was also the worst thing to happen to NASA. The whole program was a crash money-no-object bodge job to meet an arbitrary deadline. Achieved by the mother of all deathmarch engineering efforts
It was left the with a huge expensive sites and workforce but no technology or infrastructure or plan to go forward.
Re: Retro Progress
I think you're wrong: the Shuttle was the worst. It killed more astronauts than the rest of the global space program, didn't really meet its mission goal of cheap., fast turnround between missions and seems to have left very little technical legacy apart from the RS-25 engines, with the last of those being thrown away on a one-time mission while people are still scratching their heads working out how to get production restarted.
At times it seems that the US program has got lost while too many of various responsible management groups are only interested in lashings of pork than in hitting targets and making stuff work. Space-X is where it is and making progress because Musk is more interested in space than he is in getting richer than he already is.
Thanks To A South American Immigrant
I'd be interested in the ratio of immigrants to emigrants. That's probably one of the best measures of how a country is doing.
The Demo-2 launch also represents a major milestone for SpaceX: It will be the company's first crewed mission since the firm's founding in 2002.
This is a much bigger deal that any of that. This is the first time any non nation-state has put people into orbit, ever.
Perils of outsourcing?
See what happens when you outsource and lose local experience? In-sourcing again cost big bucks!
I wounder how many more Soyuz seats they could have bought for the cost of trying to in-source a capability they used to have?
(And yes, I am being tongue-in-cheek here. A bit.)
Space Xcellence
Say what you will about Musky but he is delivering, if a little late but ahead of Boeing, who should be ashamed of themselves.
Still no banana after having been awarded 1.6 times as much money and having massive previous experience.
Good luck for everything going to plan!