After 7:00 p.m. local time on Sunday, i.e. after 1:00 a.m. from Sunday to Monday Polish time, the first operational manned mission to the International Space Station was launched, carried out jointly by a private company SpaceX and the American space agency – NASA. This is the first regular mission under NASA’s commercial manned flight program.
The SpaceX and NASA mission has taken off
The start was supposed to take place on Saturday, but it was prevented by the weather brought by Hurricane Eta. The start of the mission was therefore postponed to Sunday. This means that it will be longer, due to the change in the position of the International Space Station in relation to the launch site. Instead of about eight hours, the astronauts’ journey will take 27 hours.
However, security is paramount, and so far everything has been going smoothly. The Falcon 9 rocket took off from the Space Center. Kennedy at Cape Canaveral, Florida at 7:27 PM EST. She carried the Crew Dragon capsule into space. Four astronauts were aboard the capsule: three Americans – Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and the Japanese Soichi Noguchi.
SpaceX and NASA mission. From left to right: Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins and Soichi Noguchi. AP / AP
About 30 seconds after the launch, the rocket reached a speed of 530 km / h and a height of 2 km, and in a minute it exceeded the speed of sound (over 1100 km / h). At an altitude of more than 85 km above the Earth’s surface, after exceeding the speed of 7 thousand. km / h, the main engines of the first part of the rocket were turned off and a few seconds later it disconnected and then landed on Earth – more precisely on a platform floating in the Atlantic Ocean near the Florida coast.
It was the safe return of the rocket that was the reason why the mission was delayed by one day. Reusing rockets is crucial for SpaceX and Elon Musk – it has made space missions much cheaper. About the time the first part of the Falcon 9 rocket landed, the second, after about 9 minutes of flight, carried the Crew Dragon capsule into Earth orbit.
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The crew called the Resilience capsule, meaning resistance, endurance, which is to reflect the enormity of challenges that this year brought to mankind, including, in particular, the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has also left its mark on NASA’s spaceflight and manned mission program. One of the concerns was that the launch would attract crowds of people to Florida who would not follow the rules of social distancing. This happened in May during the SpaceX manned test mission, but this time there are no signals that the situation will repeat itself.
But the coronavirus made the SpaceX boss unable to watch the take-off from the command center, along with others – Elon Musk previously stated that he was possibly infected, though he was feeling well. Due to the pandemic, the astronauts and their families were isolated in October. All staff were required to wear masks, and the number of guests in the space center was greatly reduced.
Donald Trump underlines his merits, congratulations Joe Biden
The vice president showed up USA Mike Pence with his wife. Donald Trump commented on the mission on Twitter. “Great start! NASA was a complete disaster when we took over.” [władzę – red.]. Now it is again by far the “hottest,” most advanced space center in the world! “He wrote (in between tweets stating – without providing evidence – that the recent presidential election was manipulated and he won it).
It’s worth noting here that NASA’s commercial manned flight program began in 2010, under the presidency of Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama. SpaceX joined him in 2011 and got 3.1 billion from the US government dollars on that cell.
He also referred to the latest mission Joe Bidenwhich according to the US media is the winner of the presidential election on November 3. “Congratulations to NASA and SpaceX on today’s launch. It is a testament to the power of science and what we can achieve by using our innovation, ingenuity and determination. [ang. Godspeed – red.] in their journey “- wrote Biden.
The ship is fully autonomous, also in terms of docking, but the astronauts can take control if necessary. It will stay at the International Space Station for approximately 5-6 months.
The commercial manned space flight program makes the United States independent of Russia in this matter. For almost a decade, Americans had to use Russian rockets and a Russian spaceport in Kazakhstan – and pay for it.
