Today could be an historic day. At 10pm, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will take two astronauts to the ISS Space Station. The last time that astronauts launched within the US borders was in July 2011, when the space shuttle Atlantis was sent from Florida to the International Space Station.
Now Elon Musks space company is preparing to send two NASA astronauts to the space station in a specially built Crew Dragon capsule. In addition to SpaceX, Boeing is also involved in the Demo-2 mission and has contributed to the construction of the crew-dragon capsules with which the astronauts are to be transported to the ISS.
Follow the launch here from 10pm on the live stream
The mission, known as Demo-2, is part of NASA’s commercial crew program and is intended to make the USA independent of Russian spacecraft. Since the U.S. shuttle program was terminated, the space agency had purchased seats on Soyuz capsules.
Despite some initial setbacks, the launch is now scheduled for today. The safety checks have been completed and the collaboration between NASA and SpaceX is ready to fly. For SpaceX, which has so far only transported compartment and payloads, this is the first passenger transport in the company’s history.
With the launch, NASA hopes to motivate further commercial partnerships by encouraging industry to invest more in passenger transport to low Earth orbit.
Update 27.05.2020 – 22:30 h
Several million people worldwide were waiting for the launch of the rocket. But unfortunately the weather thwarted SpaceX and NASA. The rocket launch was cancelled and postponed until Saturday.
Standing down from launch today due to unfavorable weather in the flight path. Our next launch opportunity is Saturday, May 30 at 3:22 p.m. EDT, or 19:22 UTC
– SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 27, 2020</block quota>
Update 30 May 2020 – 17:40 h
Today a new attempt is pending for SpaceX and NASA. Will the Demo-2 mission launch today? Here to the Live-Stream:
Post Picture: SpaceX / NASA
