The version of the Space X Dragon spacecraft manned by US astronauts is about to be released in the first quarter of 2020. That is, from January to March, a realistic target for the SpaceX Demo-2 mission as quoted by Space.com. The test flight will take NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken from the International Space Station (ISS) to their galactic journey.
“We are getting very close and we are sure that, in the first part of next year, we will be ready to launch American astronauts on American rockets,” said Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator, during an event at the Space X headquarters this 10 October. He also emphasized that this timeline will be maintained only if things go according to the plan with the development of the ship called Crew Dragon.
American astronauts had to rely solely on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to arrive and leave orbit since July 2011, when NASA withdrew its fleet of space shuttles.
In September 2014, NASA decided to privatize astronaut’s access to the Earth’s low orbit and granted Space X $ 2.6 billion and 4.2 billion to Boeing to fine-tune its astronaut taxis, capsules called Crew Dragon and CST-100 Starliner respectively.
At that time, NASA officials said they wanted at least one of these vehicles to be operational by the end of 2017. Different problems related to design and trials have delayed the launching date.
Source: dpa
