Elon Musk’s SpaceX is poised to send a crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station on Saturday evening in NASA’s first operational mission using the Crew Dragon capsule.
The Crew Dragon capsule, named ‘Resilience’ by its crew, is due to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 7:49 p.m. ET on Saturday, 14th November 2020, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It will carry three US astronauts — Michael Hopkins; Victor Glover; and Shannon Walker; as well as one from Japan, Soichi Noguchi.
The roughly eight-hour flight to the station will be SpaceX’s first operational mission; as opposed to a test flight. This week, NASA officials signed off on Crew Dragon’s design; ending a nearly 10-year development phase for SpaceX under the agency’s public-private crew program.
“The history being made this time is we’re launching what we call an operational flight to the International Space Station,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said during a press conference at Kennedy Space Center.
Musk, who usually attends high-profile SpaceX missions in person at Kennedy Space Center, may be absent. He had revealed that he took four coronavirus tests on Thursday, 14th Novemebr 2020; two returened negative while two also produced positive results.
Also Read:
– Tesla CEO Elon Musk Might Be Covid-19 Positive
– Elon Musk Loses $16.3 Billion As Tesla Shares Drop By 21%
– Elon Musk And Grimes Change Baby X Æ A-12’s Name
Bridenstine, when asked if Musk will be in the launch control room for liftoff on Saturday, said agency policy requires employees to quarantine and self-isolate after testing positive for the disease; “so we anticipate that that will be taking place,” she finished.
Whether Musk came into contact with the astronauts was unclear; but this is unlikely since the crew has been in routine quarantine for weeks prior to their flight on Saturday.
NASA contracted SpaceX as well as Boeing in 2014 to develop space capsules. These were aimed at replacing its shuttle program that ended in 2011; and weaning off dependence on Russian rockets to send US astronauts to space.
SpaceX’s final test of its capsule came in August 2020. The company launched and returned the first astronauts from US soil on a trip to the ISS in nearly a decade. Boeing’s first crewed test mission with its Starliner capsule is planned for late next year.
For your daily dose of tech, lifestyle, and trending content, make sure to follow Plat4om on Twitter @Plat4omLive, on Instagram @Plat4om, on LinkedIn at Plat4om, and on Facebook at Plat4om. You can also email us at info@techtalkwithtdafrica.com and join our channel on Telegram at Plat4om. Finally, don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel HERE.