ZCZC
BFF-04
US-SPACE-AEROSPACE-SPACEX
Countdown as SpaceX, NASA prepare to test new astronaut capsule
CAPE CANAVERAL, March 2, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – NASA and SpaceX counted down the
hours Friday to the launch of a new astronaut capsule on a week-long trip to
the International Space Station and back — a key step towards resuming
manned space flights from US soil after an eight-year break.
This time around, the only occupant on board SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule
will be a dummy named Ripley.
But if the test goes smoothly, NASA plans to put two astronauts aboard by
the end of the year.
The new capsule will blast off aboard a rocket built by SpaceX — run by
billionaire Elon Musk — at 2:49 am Saturday (0749 GMT) from the Kennedy
Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
It is scheduled to reach the ISS by Sunday, with a return to Earth next
Friday.
“This is a critically important event in American history,” the head of
the US space agency, Jim Bridenstine, told reporters, with the rocket and
capsule visible behind him on the legendary launch pad where the Apollo
missions to the Moon began.
“We’re on the precipice of launching American astronauts on American
rockets from American soil again for the first time since the retirement of
the space shuttles in 2011.”
The excitement was palpable at Cape Canaveral, from the space-fan
volunteers guiding media on site, to the tourists who came to watch the
launch light up the overcast skies.
“It’s been a long eight years,” the Kennedy Space Center’s director Bob
Cabana, a former astronaut himself, said as SpaceX employees milled around
the rocket.
After the shuttle program was shuttered in July 2011 after a 30-year run,
NASA began outsourcing the logistics of its space missions.
It pays Russia to get its people up to the ISS orbiting research facility
at a cost of $82 million a head, for a round trip.
In 2014, the US space agency awarded contracts to SpaceX and Boeing for
them to take over this task.
But the program has suffered delays as safety requirements are much more
stringent for manned flights than for unmanned missions to deploy satellites.
MRE/SSS/0943 hrs
ZCZC
BFF-05
US-SPACE-AEROSPACE-SPACEX-2-LAST
“We’re going to have more access to space at a better cost than at any
point in human history,” said Bridenstine, adding he was “100 percent
confident” that a manned flight would happen by year’s end.
– Boeing next –
Boeing also received a contract in 2014 to develop a space vessel, the
Starliner. It will not be tested until April, in a mission similar to
SpaceX’s.
NASA did not want to rely on just one single vehicle, in case of
accidents.
“We’re going to be a customer,” Bridenstine told reporters.
Planning has been delayed by around three years, with the first manned
SpaceX flight still penciled in for July, though officials frequently refer
to the end of 2019 as a more realistic deadline.
“We’re going to take it day by day,” Bridenstine said of the timeline.
“Right now, the date is July and that’s what we’re planning for, but if we
change that date we’ll make sure people know when it’s the right time.”
Doug Hurley, one of the two astronauts chosen for the future first manned
flight, said: “We will be ready when SpaceX and NASA are ready for us to
fly.”
– ‘Going to learn a ton’ –
Saturday’s flight aims to test the vessel’s reliability and safety in
real-life conditions.
The dummy that will ride in the capsule — which SpaceX’s Hans Koenigsmann
prefers to call a “smartie” — has been nicknamed Ripley in honor of the
character played by Sigourney Weaver in the “Alien” movies.
It will be fitted with monitors to test the forces that future astronauts
will be subjected to on takeoff and when they return to the Earth’s
atmosphere and then splash down in the Atlantic, slowed down by giant
parachutes.
“We’re going to learn a ton from this mission,” said Kathy Lueders, the
manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew program.
For SpaceX, which Musk founded in 2002, sending an astronaut into orbit
would be a culmination of years of hard work and high-risk investment.
“Every mission is important, but this is even more important, said
Koenigsmann, the firm’s vice-president for build and flight reliability.
“Early on, our goal was human spaceflight,” he said. “Human spaceflight is
a core value of business of SpaceX.” In less than a decade, SpaceX has become
a key partner for NASA, in addition to dominating the market for private
satellite launches.
Its Falcon 9 rockets have resupplied the space station 15 times in seven
years, even though one of them blew up in 2015.
BSS/AFP/SSS/0944 hrs