NASA astronauts arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday where they will fly in a week to resume US manned flights after nine years of interruption. The flight must take place aboard a capsule designed by SpaceX.
“The road was long,” said Douglas Hurley, who participated in the last flight of the American space shuttle in July 2011. Since then, the Americans have been going to the International Space Station (ISS) exclusively on the Russian Soyuz rockets, an addiction that the United States is anxious to break.
With Robert Behnken, Douglas Hurley will inaugurate SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, tested with a mannequin last year, but never with humans on board. On May 27, a Falcon 9 rocket from the private space company founded by Elon Musk will take off from the Kennedy Center to orbit the capsule, which will then dock with the ISS, where two Russians and one American are currently located.
Fifth spacecraft
“This is a great time to be an astronaut, to be able to fly aboard a new spacecraft,” said Robert Behnken at a press conference in Florida. The two teammates have been in quarantine since May 13.
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, who was unable to shake hands with them upon arrival, repeated that it would be the fifth time in history only that a new American spacecraft would be launched after the programs Gemini, Mercury, Apollo and shuttles.
The launch on May 27 will be without the usual audience, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
ats, dpa
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