Space, the last frontier… of travel agencies. For not a few years ago, millionaires and private companies have sought ways to make the so-called ‘Space Tourism’ viable: Travel from Earth to the Moon, or to Space or even to Mars made not by professional astronauts in pursuit of space exploration and Humanity, but for people like you and me who have always dreamed of going beyond the Earth’s atmosphere – although it is clear that the super-rich will go first.
Crew Dragon
NASA and the launch managers of SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company that accomplished what NASA has not yet accomplished – a rocket for spacecraft takeoff that returns to Earth and lands at the same site it took off from. – The Demo-2 mission, the first astronaut launch on an American rocket since the last space shuttle mission in 2011, was given the go-ahead last Monday.
SpaceX is targeting Wednesday, May 27, the Falcon 9 launch of Crew Dragon’s second demonstration mission (Demo-2) from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A), at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
This test flight with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley aboard the Dragon spacecraft will return human space flights to American soil since 2011 all manned flights with NASA astronauts have been launched on Russian rockets. from Kazakhstan.
Schedule and where to see the launch of the Crew Dragon
The instant launch window opens today at 4:33 pm EDT (Eastern Daylight Time), although if something goes wrong, there will be alternate launch windows for the mission both Saturday and Sunday. In Spain, we will see it today Wednesday 27 at 22:33 at night exactly, 21:33 in the Canary Islands.
Below we leave you the official NASA player on their YouTube channel, which has already started broadcasting 4 hours before launch, and the links to the NASA and SpaceX websites, both of which will also show the takeoff signal in direct streaming:
Test the SpaceX system
Demo-2 is the last major test for SpaceX’s manned space flight system to be certified by NASA for operational crew missions to and from the International Space Station. This mission will validate SpaceX’s crew transport system, including the launch pad, rocket, spacecraft, and operational capabilities. And it will also be the first time that NASA astronauts have tested the spacecraft’s systems in orbit.
Once in orbit, the Crew Dragon spacecraft will perform a series of phase maneuvers to position itself for the rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station. The spacecraft is designed to do this autonomously, but astronauts aboard it and the Space Station will monitor the approach and docking and will be able to take control of the Crew Dragon if the need arises.
Artemis Program
The Demo-2 mission will be the last big step before NASA’s Commercial Crew Program certifies Crew Dragon for long-term operational missions to the space station. This certification and the regular operation of Crew Dragon will allow NASA to continue the investigations and technologies that are being carried out onboard the station.
Something that will set the stage for future exploration of the Moon and Mars, starting with the agency’s Artemis program, which will land the first woman and the next man on the lunar surface in 2024.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is seeking private companies like Musk’s SpaceX to develop the next generation of rockets and spacecraft that can take astronauts into space. The idea is that these ships are cheaper to produce than those made by the US space agency, and incidentally, SpaceX and company can be removed. an extra benefit by selling seats to civilian customers who want to go into space.
Privatize up space flights
The chief administrator of NASA during the Obama presidency, Lori Garver, sums it up better than anyone: “He is 1st in Capitalism. The government is not good at this. We have launched ships for 50 years, and the industry was doing all the work. Why not let [the private ones] take care of them and we buy the service? “
Privatize Health. Privatize the Army. And now privatize even space travel. Will this be the future of space exploration? Huge private mega-corporations that will take care of the whole process?