SpaceX rocket’s first flight which is tailored to transport professional astronauts to NASA’s International Space Station is all set for liftoff from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on 7th of January according to NASA on Wednesday.
The test flight launch is regarded as a crucial milestone in the Commercial Crew Program of SpaceX Space Agency is currently aiming to launch humans into space from the United States soil for the first time in ten years.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States said that the Crew Dragon spacecraft from SpaceX would be shuttling a handful of three astronauts into space from the exact launch pad that had allegedly send the three-person crew of Apollo 11 to the moon back in 1969. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is going to make its debut flight on 7th of January.
NASA hasn’t still detailed the path of the flight, but they have said that the test might provide data based on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, Falcon 9 as well as the performance of its ground systems along with docking, on-orbit and landing operations.
Boeing Co and SpaceX are reportedly the two significant contractors that have been selected under the Commercial Crew Program by NASA for sending the astronauts to space in 2019 by utilizing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft and Crew Dragon respectively.
The space shuttle program of the U.S. was shut down in the year 2011, and NASA has to chiefly rely on Russia to fly the astronauts to the International Space Station which is a $100 billion laboratory which flies around 250 miles above Earth’s atmosphere.
SpaceX has targeted to make its first flight in early January to which the spokeswoman of NASA Marie Lewis has told that the demo mission might be pushed back due to a staunch belief that “flying safely comes first over keeping up with the schedule.”
According to the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk, if the first flight is successful, then they have made plans to launch their first mission with crew members in June 2019.
