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A flying grain silo, an important test of Muska’s new rocket
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For the first time, two astronauts traveled to the International Space Station aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft a few months ago – on May 30, 2020. This was the first time in history that a private company – founded by Elon Musk, SpaceX – brought people to the ISS. It is also the first time since the shutdown of the space shuttle program that astronauts have flown into space from American soil.
The astronauts will fly to the ISS a second time
NASA and SpaceX have since been gearing up for a restart and it was finally scheduled for this weekend (it was postponed from Saturday to Sunday due to weather conditions). Similarly to the previous time, this time we are dealing with a demonstration flight (but not already tested), which will also be a good opportunity for scientists to check all the details of the mission.
Unlike the May mission, NASA is planning to send a full, four-person team of three Americans and one Japanese from the JAXA space agency this time.
The Falcon 9 rocket and the Crew Dragon capsule with the four astronauts on board is scheduled to launch on Sunday 19:27 EST. Unfortunately, this time will not be very favorable for fans of space flights in Poland, because it will be 1:27 on the night from Sunday to Monday by the Vistula River.
Traditionally, we can expect that both NASA and SpaceX will conduct broadcasts where we will be able to watch live the start of four people aboard the Crew Dragon. There are still many hours before the start, so broadcasts have not yet started. However, it is worth following the channels on a regular basis SpaceX i NASA on Youtube. Details about the launch should also appear regularly on your accounts SpaceX i NASA on Twitter.
SpaceX will recover the rocket again
Today’s mission shouldn’t be much different from May’s. SpaceX plans – as in previous missions (also unmanned), to take off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, and shortly after take-off from the manned Dragon capsule, the first part of the rocket will detach from the manned capsule, which will return to Earth and land in a previously prepared place. This is a fairly innovative method used by Elon Musk, which allows you to reuse some of the rockets and, consequently, reduce the cost of space flights.
The start should take place in a few hours, but – just like on Saturday – the weather will be the key factor. NASA and SpaceX will only allow take-off when the weather at Cape Canaveral allows it. On Saturday, it was prevented by a gusty wind that broke off the coast of Florida.
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