NASA is finally about to take flight from US soil, after a long and frankly, embarrassing hiatus of almost a decade. The last flight that took off from the US was in 2011. After that, the space agency was unable to send people into space from its homeland due to technical errors and unexpected delays and some real bad luck. Things got so out of hand that NASA had to make a plea to its rival, Russia, to take its astronauts to space. However, things are about to turn around for the space agency.
The flight, which surprisingly will not be one of NASA’s shuttles but SpaceX’s Dragon Spacecraft, will take off from the Florida Space Coast. The mission is set to go live on May 27. The exact date may change, as is common when it comes to space missions. Still, this is a big achievement for NASA and the country as well.
Aboard the spacecraft will be Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who will be the test subjects of SpaceX’s first manned mission. Yes, this is will be a test flight that will transport the two astronauts to the International Space Station. The mission has been given the name Demo 2, after Demo 1 became successful last year.
The plan is to takeoff by 4:32 p.m. from the Kennedy Space Center’s pad 39A. The mission, which was earlier expected to be just a small stop, will now include some minor shift work on the International Space Station, due to several delays, both by NASA and SpaceX.
This will be a test mission, after which the main mission will take place some time later this year probably. The 4 passengers aboard the crew have already been named, U.S. astronauts Shannon Walker, Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover, along with JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi. They will take off for the ISS by the end of 2020, and stay there for a duration of 6 months. Now, Demo 2 is the only thing standing between SpaceX and a chance at glory.
SpaceX’s competitor,Boeing, must be pretty bummed out by the announcement since it could not fulfil its agreement with NASA. The company had promised similar trips to the company, but ran into problems with its launches. Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner vehicle has been delayed due to an unpleasant test flight in 2019. Therefore, the company is planning to stick to unmanned test flights till it gets its formula right.
