SpaceX is finally ready to write history. They’re preparing for the first astronaut launch for NASA, which will happen next week.
They found no showstoppers during an essential flight readiness view (FRR), for SpaceX Demo-2 mission, which means they will keep going on the company’s first-ever crewed flight for the 27th of May liftoff: “The Flight Readiness Review has concluded, and NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission is cleared to proceed toward liftoff on the first crewed flight of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.”
Demo-2 is ready to send NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the ISS – International Space Station. They will fly abroad SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, which is set to launch atop of Falcon 9 rocket from the KSC – Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
This mission will actually be the very first orbital human spaceflight to leave from America ever since NASA had retired its aircraft in July 2011. Ever since 2011, NASA has mostly relied on on Russian Soyuz rockets to get its astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
How SpaceX and Boeing will help NASA
Right now, NASA is relying on SpaceX and Boeing to help it get rid of this dependence that they have on the Russian Soyuz rockets. Back in 2014, the agency gave SpaceX 2.6 billion dollars in order to finish Crew Dragon-Falcon 9 system and to fly six crewed missions to the International Space Station. Boeing got 4.2 billion dollars at the same time, which they used for a capsule called CST-100 Starliner.
Demo-2 is the last step for SpaceX to be ready before they can start flying the missions to space. Back in March 2019, Crew Dragon paid a visit to the ISS with an uncrewed flight, which was called Demo-1. Demo-2 will be able to validate the capsule for operational flights, should all go according to the plan.
