The spaceship named Crew Dragon of SpaceX Company with a future mission carrying American astronauts went into space in the early morning of March 2.
Since the American space shuttle was retired in 2011, American astronauts who want to go to the International Space Station (ISS) to work or return to Earth have had to depend on Russian ships. Therefore, the first test flight of a new ship called Crew Dragon is expected by Americans to bring them back to the space race autonomously.
Privateer
The launch took place at dawn on March 2 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The center located next to Cape Canaveral is where America’s missions to conquer space are carried out. This place witnessed the launches of Apollo to conquer the Moon and the space shuttles of the US Space Agency (NASA) as well as the most powerful rocket in the world today belonging to SpaceX, Falcon Heavy.
One of the reasons why the test attracted attention is that the capsule was not built by the experienced NASA agency, but by the private company SpaceX run by the “wild” billionaire Elon Musk.
Under President Barack Obama, NASA called for bids from the private sector for two projects: building a spaceship that could transport goods and a ship that could transport people to the ISS, currently in an orbit of 400km. Transferring it to the private sector is not only to stimulate demand for this US industry, but also to save time in finding a replacement for the space shuttle that was put in storage because it was too expensive and too dangerous. .
SpaceX is the only company that won the bid for both projects that NASA set out to do. They have built the Dragon cargo ship, participating in transporting goods to the ISS since 2012, then transporting equipment that needs repair and waste from the ISS to the ground. The Crew Dragon ship carrying astronauts is considered a development of the Dragon ship.
Strict safety
Previously, billionaire Elon Musk was excited about his company’s bold capabilities, but in fact the Crew Dragon was tested up to 3 years late. Much of the reason for the testing delay is the strict safety requirements set by NASA. Of course, that is the top priority, because NASA does not want to repeat the tragic accidents of the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia in 1986 and 2003. 14 American astronauts died in those two incidents.
During the test flight on March 2, engineers placed only one doll in the seat of the capsule designed to carry up to 7 astronauts. The doll was personally named Ripley by owner Elon Musk, after the female protagonist of the movie Alien. The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket carried the Crew Dragon and brought it back to earth on March 8 using the remaining first stage of the rocket. According to the plan, it will automatically connect with the ISS on March 3.
If this test is successful, Nasa’s first two astronauts may go to space on a US ship from next July, according to SpaceX’s statement, but experts are still not sure.
NASA invested nearly 7 billion USD
In addition to SpaceX, private company Orbital Sciences has won the bid for an automated cargo ship project called Cygnus. In the bid to order a human spacecraft, initially about a dozen companies jumped in, but in the end only SpaceX’s project and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner project were selected for test flights this year. .
In September 2014, NASA spent $2.6 billion on SpaceX and $4.2 billion on Boeing to carry out the project. Each company will have to carry out up to 6 space missions for NASA and at least two rounds of transporting people to and from the ISS station.