First SpaceX Crew Dragon Ready to Launch

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government. It is responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research.

NASA was established in 1958, succeeding the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency was to have a distinctly civilian orientation, encouraging peaceful applications in space science. Since its establishment, most US space exploration efforts have been led by NASA. Some of these are: Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space Shuttle. NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the Space Launch System and Commercial Crew vehicles also. Alongside, it is also responsible for the Launch Services Program which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches. Lately, (NASA) has announced the date for the launch of the first commercial crew test flight, which shall be an uncrewed SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. This aircraft will start a series of high stakes missions over the next year. The launch is expected to take place from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A, the former Apollo and shuttle pad that SpaceX has renovated. The spacecraft will fly a mission to the International Space Station to test the vehicle’s systems. It will be the first orbital flight for the vehicle, and will not carry astronauts. If this flight gets successful, another crewed test flight, called Demo-2, will follow it in June, 2019. There are plans to conduct an in-flight abort test between Demo 1 and Demo 2. During the abort test, the crew dragon will use its abort system to jettison from a Falcon 9 vehicle after liftoff. NASA also plans to perform a review of the safety cultures of SpaceX and the other commercial crew contractor, Boeing. The team of panel members raised a number of questions concerning Boeing and SpaceX’s development. The managers of both the companies’ commercial crew programs while speaking at the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS) stated that they would not fly the spacecraft until and unless all the issues are resolved. NASA is making the best of efforts in order to get at least one commercial crew vehicle certified before NASA’s access to Soyuz seats expire in early 2020.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://spacenews.com/first-spacex-crew-dragon-test-flight-set-for-january/