Reach Orbit, SpaceX Record Send 10 Astronauts Into Space

Suara.com – SpaceX successful launch four astronaut on Friday morning (local time). This means that Elon Musk’s company has sent 10 astronauts into space in less than a year.

The Crew-2 mission has reached orbit after being launched from the Kennedy Space Center NASA in Florida at 5:49 a.m. ET.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carries four astronauts into space in the Crew Dragon spacecraft owned by a company called Endeavor.

The launch marks some of the first times for SpaceX, with the company reusing rockets and capsules for the mission, and surpassing the total number of astronauts launched into space under the Mercury program that began in 1958.

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“It was spectacular. Our partnership with SpaceX is extraordinary,” said NASA administrator Steve Jurczyk after the Crew-2 mission was launched. CNBC, Saturday (24/4/2021).

The SpaceX Dragon Crew Capsule, carrying NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Japan’s Akihiko Hoshide, and France’s Thomas Pesquet, is now en route to the International Space Station.

The mission is scheduled to dock with the ISS approximately 24 hours after launch, at around 5:10 a.m. ET today (local time).

“We are delighted to be back in space, and we will send greetings to Crew-1 when we get there,” said Kimbrough, speaking from the spacecraft after launch.

The Crew-2 team will undertake a full duration mission on the ISS, spending about six months on it. The four of them will join forces with astronaut Crew-1, which launched last November, before the Endurance Team Dragon Crew capsule last took off and returned to Earth.

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After launch, SpaceX also lands a Falcon 9 rocket booster, which is the bottom of the massive rocket.

The Falcon 9 rocket booster previously launched its Crew-1 mission in November, and SpaceX plans to continue using it to launch future missions.

“Glad to be part of advancing human spaceflight and hope to go beyond Earth’s orbit to the Moon and Mars, and help turn humanity into an extraterrestrial civilization,” Musk said during a post-launch press conference.

SpaceX developed the Crew Dragon spacecraft and perfected the Falcon 9 rocket under NASA’s Commercial Crew program, which gave the company $ 3.1 billion to develop the system and launch six operational missions.

Commercial Crew is a competitive program. NASA also awarded Boeing a $ 4.8 billion contract to develop the Starliner spacecraft – but the capsule remains in development due to a December 2019 unmanned flight test that ran into significant challenges.

Crew-2 represents the second of six missions for SpaceX, with NASA now benefiting from the investment it is making in the development of the company’s spacecraft.

NASA stressed that in addition to providing the US with a way to send astronauts into space, SpaceX offers the agency a cost-saving option.

The agency expects to pay $ 55 million per astronaut to fly Crew Dragon, compared to $ 86 million per astronaut to fly alongside Russia.

NASA last year estimated that two private companies competing for the contract saved $ 20 billion to $ 30 billion in development costs.

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