Crew-2 will mark his third trip to space, having flown on the Space Shuttle in 2008 and a Russian Soyuz in 2016. Kimbrough, the spacecraft's commander, was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 2004. The Crew-2 mission will carry an international group of four astronauts: NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, along with Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet. The company completed a full dress rehearsal for Crew-2 on Sunday, with the quartet of astronauts practicing suiting up and driving out to the launchpad in the pair of Tesla Model Xs that SpaceX uses for crew transportation. NASA last year estimated that having two private companies compete for contracts saved the agency between $20 billion and $30 billion in development costs. The agency expects to pay $55 million per astronaut to fly with Crew Dragon, as opposed to $86 million per astronaut to fly with the Russians. having a way to send astronauts to space, SpaceX offers the agency a cost-saving option as well. NASA emphasizes that, in addition to the U.S. SpaceX developed its Crew Dragon spacecraft and fine-tuned its Falcon 9 rocket under NASA's Commercial Crew program, which provided the company with $3.1 billion to develop the system and launch six operational missions.Ĭommercial Crew is a competitive program, as NASA also awarded Boeing with $4.8 billion in contracts to develop its Starliner spacecraft - but that competing capsule remains in development due to an uncrewed flight test in December 2019 that experienced significant challenges.Ĭrew-2 represents the second of those six missions for SpaceX, with NASA now benefiting from the investment it made in the company's spacecraft development. The Crew Dragon capsule must meet up with the ISS in orbit, so if SpaceX doesn't launch on Friday then the company will wait two days to Monday for the next launch opportunity. "Downrange weather is a little bit trickier, as this high pressure system moves over the Arkansas area that combined with this front is causing some pretty high winds in some of the areas downrange and some pretty high waves," NASA's International Space Station program manager Joel Montalbano said. The ocean needs to be calm in the direction the rocket is launching, in case a mid-flight abort leads to the capsule splashing down after liftoff. The flight was previously scheduled to launch on Thursday, but rough seas delayed the launch. NASA and SpaceX are watching the weather, both in the local area in Florida and in the Atlantic Ocean. "Flying on reused vehicles, on flight proven vehicles is key towards greater flight reliability and lowering the cost of access to space, which is ultimately what helps us make life multiplanetary," Reed added. NASA astronauts on a flight-proven Dragon and a flight-proven Falcon." "In less than 11 months, the joint NASA and SpaceX team were able to certify reuse, so we are flying. "A lot of firsts and a lot of good stuff happening," Reed said. The Crew-2 mission will bring SpaceX's astronaut count to 10. The Mercury program flew six people to space across five years, a total which SpaceX matched with its Demo-2 and Crew-1 missions last year. human spaceflight program and included launching Alan Shepard as the first American in space. Mercury, begun in 1958, was the first U.S. we'll in less than a year have flown as many people in this partnership with NASA as were flown in the Mercury program," SpaceX senior director Benji Reed said during a press briefing earlier this week. "It's super cool to have the opportunity to do this so quickly. Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
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