Sunday, May 24, 2020

SpaceX ready to launch astronauts into space for the first time

SPACEX/AFP/File / -The Crew Dragon spacecraft and the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket are pictured at Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 21, 2020
In the beginning, everyone was skeptical. But Elon Musk's SpaceX defied expectations -- and on Wednesday hopes to make history by ferrying two NASA astronauts into space, the first crewed flight from US soil in nine long years.
US President Donald Trump will be among the spectators at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to witness the launch, which has been given the green light despite months of shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The general public, in a nod to virus restrictions, has been told to watch via a livestream as Crew Dragon is launched by a Falcon 9 rocket toward the International Space Station.
NASA's Commercial Crew program, aimed at developing private spacecraft to transport American astronauts in to space, began under Barack Obama.
NASA/AFP / Bill INGALLSDouglas Hurley, left, and Robert Behnken, wearing SpaceX spacesuits, are seen as they depart for Launch Pad 39A on May 23, 2020 during a dress rehearsal prior to the mission launch, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida
But his successor sees it as a symbol of his strategy to reassert American domination of space, both military -- with his creation of the Space Force -- and civilian.
He has ordered NASA to return to the moon in 2024, an unlikely timetable but one that has given the storied space agency a boost.
In the 22 years since the first components of the ISS were launched, only spacecraft developed by NASA and by the Russian space agency have carried crews there.
NASA used the illustrious shuttle program -- huge, extremely complex, winged ships that carried dozens of astronauts into space for three decades.
But their staggering cost -- $200 billion for 135 flights -- and two fatal accidents finally put an end to the program.
NASA/AFP/File / Bill INGALLSA SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard at Launch Pad 39A during a brief static fire test on May 22, 2020, ahead of Wednesday's mission -- the first crewed flight from US soil into space since 2011
The last shuttle, Atlantis, landed on July 21, 2011.
After, NASA astronauts learned Russian and travelled to the ISS in the Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan, in a partnership which survived political tensions between Washington and Moscow.
But it was only ever meant to be a temporary arrangement. NASA had entrusted two private companies -- aviation giant Boeing and upstart SpaceX -- with the task of designing and building capsules that would replace the shuttles.
Nine years later, SpaceX -- founded by Musk, the outspoken South African entrepreneur who also built PayPal and Tesla, in 2002 -- is ready to launch.
- 'Success story' -
At 4:33 pm (2033 GMT) on Wednesday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to take off from Launch Pad 39A with the Crew Dragon capsule at its top.
NASA has awarded SpaceX more than $3 billion in contracts since 2011 to build the spacecraft.
SPACEX/AFP/File / -SpaceX has confounded expectations with its space craft, built using more than $3 billion of NASA contracts
The capsule will be crewed by Robert Behnken, 49, and Douglas Hurley, 53, both veteran space travelers -- Hurley piloted Atlantis on its last trip.
Nineteen hours later they will dock at the ISS, where two Russians and an American are waiting for them.
The weather forecast remains unfavorable, with a 60 percent chance of bad conditions, according to Cape Canaveral forecasters.
The next launch window is Saturday, May 30.
The launch has taken five years longer than planned to come about, but even with the delays SpaceX has beaten Boeing to the punch.
Boeing's test flight of its Starliner failed due to serious software issues, and will have to be redone.
AFP/File / Philip PachecoElon Musk, fondateur de SpaceX, le 10 octobre 2019 au siège de sa société à Hawthorne (Californie)
"It's been a real success story," Scott Hubbard, former director of NASA's Ames Center in Silicon Valley who now teaches at Stanford, told AFP.
"There was huge skepticism," Hubbard, who met Musk before the creation of SpaceX and also chairs a SpaceX safety advisory panel, recalled.
"Senior people at the legacy companies, Lockheed, Boeing, would tell me at a conference that these SpaceX guys don't know what they don't know," he told AFP.
SpaceX finally came out on top with its cheaper Falcon 9 rocket, the first stage of which comes back to land vertically on a barge in the Atlantic.
AFP /The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule
Since 2012, SpaceX has been resupplying the ISS for NASA, thanks to the cargo version of the Dragon capsule.
The manned mission, called Demo-2, is crucial for Washington in two ways.
The first is to break NASA's dependence on the Russians.
But the second is to catalyze a private "low Earth orbit" market open to tourists and businesses.
"We envision a day in the future where we have a dozen space stations in low Earth orbit. All operated by commercial industry," said NASA boss Jim Bridenstine.
Musk is aiming higher: he is building a huge rocket, Starship, to circumnavigate the Moon -- or even to travel to Mars and ultimately make humanity a "multi-planet species".

SpaceX's 1st astronaut launch breaking new ground for style




SpaceX's 1st astronaut launch breaking new ground for style
This undated photo made available by SpaceX shows NASA astronaut Bob Behnken in his spacesuit at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. On Wednesday, May 27, 2020, Behnken and Doug Hurley are scheduled to board a SpaceX Dragon capsule atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and, equipment and weather permitting, shoot into space. It will be the first astronaut launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center since the last shuttle flight in 2011. (SpaceX via AP)

The first astronauts launched by SpaceX are breaking new ground for style with hip spacesuits, gull-wing Teslas and a sleek rocketship—all of it white with black trim.
The color coordinating is thanks to Elon Musk, the driving force behind both SpaceX and Tesla, and a big fan of flash and science fiction.
NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken like the fresh new look. They'll catch a ride to the  in a Tesla Model X electric car.
"It is really neat, and I think the biggest testament to that is my 10-year-old son telling me how cool I am now," Hurley told The Associated Press.
"SpaceX has gone all out" on the capsule's appearance, he said. "And they've worked equally as hard to make the innards and the displays and everything else in the vehicle work to perfection."
The true test comes Wednesday when Hurley and Behnken climb aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and, equipment and weather permitting, shoot into space. It will be the first astronaut launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center since the last shuttle flight in 2011.
It will also mark the first attempt by a private company to send astronauts into orbit. Only governments—Russia, the U.S., and China—have done that.


SpaceX's 1st astronaut launch breaking new ground for style
This undated photo made available by SpaceX shows NASA astronaut Doug Hurley in his spacesuit at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. On Wednesday, May 27, 2020, Hurley and Bob Behnken are scheduled to pilot a SpaceX Dragon capsule to the International Space Station. It will be the first astronaut launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center since the last shuttle flight in 2011. (Ashish Sharma/SpaceX via AP)

 for the first time

SPACEX/AFP/File / -The Crew Dragon spacecraft and the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket are pictured at Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 21, 2020
In the beginning, everyone was skeptical. But Elon Musk's SpaceX defied expectations -- and on Wednesday hopes to make history by ferrying two NASA astronauts into space, the first crewed flight from US soil in nine long years.
US President Donald Trump will be among the spectators at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to witness the launch, which has been given the green light despite months of shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The general public, in a nod to virus restrictions, has been told to watch via a livestream as Crew Dragon is launched by a Falcon 9 rocket toward the International Space Station.
NASA's Commercial Crew program, aimed at developing private spacecraft to transport American astronauts in to space, began under Barack Obama.
NASA/AFP / Bill INGALLSDouglas Hurley, left, and Robert Behnken, wearing SpaceX spacesuits, are seen as they depart for Launch Pad 39A on May 23, 2020 during a dress rehearsal prior to the mission launch, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida
But his successor sees it as a symbol of his strategy to reassert American domination of space, both military -- with his creation of the Space Force -- and civilian.
He has ordered NASA to return to the moon in 2024, an unlikely timetable but one that has given the storied space agency a boost.
In the 22 years since the first components of the ISS were launched, only spacecraft developed by NASA and by the Russian space agency have carried crews there.
NASA used the illustrious shuttle program -- huge, extremely complex, winged ships that carried dozens of astronauts into space for three decades.
But their staggering cost -- $200 billion for 135 flights -- and two fatal accidents finally put an end to the program.
NASA/AFP/File / Bill INGALLSA SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard at Launch Pad 39A during a brief static fire test on May 22, 2020, ahead of Wednesday's mission -- the first crewed flight from US soil into space since 2011
The last shuttle, Atlantis, landed on July 21, 2011.
After, NASA astronauts learned Russian and travelled to the ISS in the Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan, in a partnership which survived political tensions between Washington and Moscow.
But it was only ever meant to be a temporary arrangement. NASA had entrusted two private companies -- aviation giant Boeing and upstart SpaceX -- with the task of designing and building capsules that would replace the shuttles.
Nine years later, SpaceX -- founded by Musk, the outspoken South African entrepreneur who also built PayPal and Tesla, in 2002 -- is ready to launch.
- 'Success story' -
At 4:33 pm (2033 GMT) on Wednesday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to take off from Launch Pad 39A with the Crew Dragon capsule at its top.
NASA has awarded SpaceX more than $3 billion in contracts since 2011 to build the spacecraft.
SPACEX/AFP/File / -SpaceX has confounded expectations with its space craft, built using more than $3 billion of NASA contracts
The capsule will be crewed by Robert Behnken, 49, and Douglas Hurley, 53, both veteran space travelers -- Hurley piloted Atlantis on its last trip.
Nineteen hours later they will dock at the ISS, where two Russians and an American are waiting for them.
The weather forecast remains unfavorable, with a 60 percent chance of bad conditions, according to Cape Canaveral forecasters.
The next launch window is Saturday, May 30.
The launch has taken five years longer than planned to come about, but even with the delays SpaceX has beaten Boeing to the punch.
Boeing's test flight of its Starliner failed due to serious software issues, and will have to be redone.
AFP/File / Philip PachecoElon Musk, fondateur de SpaceX, le 10 octobre 2019 au siège de sa société à Hawthorne (Californie)
"It's been a real success story," Scott Hubbard, former director of NASA's Ames Center in Silicon Valley who now teaches at Stanford, told AFP.
"There was huge skepticism," Hubbard, who met Musk before the creation of SpaceX and also chairs a SpaceX safety advisory panel, recalled.
"Senior people at the legacy companies, Lockheed, Boeing, would tell me at a conference that these SpaceX guys don't know what they don't know," he told AFP.
SpaceX finally came out on top with its cheaper Falcon 9 rocket, the first stage of which comes back to land vertically on a barge in the Atlantic.
AFP /The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule
Since 2012, SpaceX has been resupplying the ISS for NASA, thanks to the cargo version of the Dragon capsule.
The manned mission, called Demo-2, is crucial for Washington in two ways.
The first is to break NASA's dependence on the Russians.
But the second is to catalyze a private "low Earth orbit" market open to tourists and businesses.
"We envision a day in the future where we have a dozen space stations in low Earth orbit. All operated by commercial industry," said NASA boss Jim Bridenstine.
Musk is aiming higher: he is building a huge rocket, Starship, to circumnavigate the Moon -- or even to travel to Mars and ultimately make humanity a "multi-planet species".

SpaceX's 1st astronaut launch breaking new ground for style




SpaceX's 1st astronaut launch breaking new ground for style
This undated photo made available by SpaceX shows NASA astronaut Bob Behnken in his spacesuit at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. On Wednesday, May 27, 2020, Behnken and Doug Hurley are scheduled to board a SpaceX Dragon capsule atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and, equipment and weather permitting, shoot into space. It will be the first astronaut launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center since the last shuttle flight in 2011. (SpaceX via AP)

The first astronauts launched by SpaceX are breaking new ground for style with hip spacesuits, gull-wing Teslas and a sleek rocketship—all of it white with black trim.
The color coordinating is thanks to Elon Musk, the driving force behind both SpaceX and Tesla, and a big fan of flash and science fiction.
NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken like the fresh new look. They'll catch a ride to the  in a Tesla Model X electric car.
"It is really neat, and I think the biggest testament to that is my 10-year-old son telling me how cool I am now," Hurley told The Associated Press.
"SpaceX has gone all out" on the capsule's appearance, he said. "And they've worked equally as hard to make the innards and the displays and everything else in the vehicle work to perfection."
The true test comes Wednesday when Hurley and Behnken climb aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and, equipment and weather permitting, shoot into space. It will be the first astronaut launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center since the last shuttle flight in 2011.
It will also mark the first attempt by a private company to send astronauts into orbit. Only governments—Russia, the U.S., and China—have done that.


SpaceX's 1st astronaut launch breaking new ground for style
This undated photo made available by SpaceX shows NASA astronaut Doug Hurley in his spacesuit at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. On Wednesday, May 27, 2020, Hurley and Bob Behnken are scheduled to pilot a SpaceX Dragon capsule to the International Space Station. It will be the first astronaut launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center since the last shuttle flight in 2011. (Ashish Sharma/SpaceX via AP)

The historic send-off deserves to look good, according to SpaceX. It already has a nice ring. Musk named his rocket after the "Star Wars" Millennium Falcon. The capsule name stems from "Puff the Magic Dragon," Musk's jab at all the doubters when he started SpaceX in 2002. The historic send-off deserves to look good, according to SpaceX. It already has a nice ring. Musk named his rocket after the "Star Wars" Millennium Falcon. The capsule name stems from "Puff the Magic Dragon," Musk's jab at all the doubters when he started SpaceX in 2002.
SpaceX designed and built its own suits, which are custom-fit. Safety came first. The cool—or wow—factor was a close second.
"It's important that the suits are comfortable and also are inspiring," explained SpaceX's Benji Reed. a mission director. "But above all, it's designed to keep the crew safe."
The bulky, orange ascent and entry suits worn by shuttle astronauts had their own attraction, according to Behnken, who like Hurley wore them for his two previous missions. Movies like "Armageddon" and "Space Cowboys" stole the orange look whenever actors were "trying to pretend to be astronauts."



SpaceX's 1st astronaut launch breaking new ground for style
This July 31, 2019 photo made available by SpaceX shows astronauts Bob Behnken, left, and Doug Hurley in Hawthorne, Calif., during a joint training event between NASA and SpaceX. Following crew suit-up, the crew ingressed the capsule simulator in Hawthorne, Calif., as they would on launch day, and the teams performed a simulated launch countdown and several emergency egress scenarios. SpaceX designed and built its own suits, which are custom-fit. (SpaceX via AP)
On launch day, Hurley and Behnken will get ready inside Kennedy's remodeled crew quarters, which dates back to the two-man Gemini missions of the mid-1960s. SpaceX techs will help the astronauts into their one-piece, two-layer pressure suits.
Hurley and Behnken will emerge through the same double doors used on July 16, 1969, by Apollo 11′s Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins—the Operations and Checkout Building now bears Armstrong's name.
But instead of the traditional Astrovan, the two will climb into the back seat of a Tesla Model X for the nine-mile ride to Launch Complex 39A, the same pad used by the moonmen and most shuttle crews. It's while they board the Tesla that they'll see their wives and young sons for the last time before flight.
Making a comeback after three decades is NASA's worm logo—wavy, futuristic-looking red letters spelling NASA, the "A" resembling rocket nose cones. The worm adorns the Astro-Tesla, Falcon and even the ' suits, along with NASA's original blue meatball-shaped logo.
  • is October 2007 photo made available by NASA shows astronaut B
    • SpaceX's 1st astronaut launch breaking new ground for style
      This photo provided by Maxar's WorldView-3 satellite shows an overview of Launch Pad 39A and the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft on top of the rocket, Saturday, May 23, 2020, at Kennedy Space Center, in Florida. NASA is preparing for its first manned flight in nearly a decade from the United States. (Satellite image ©2020 Maxar Technologies via AP)
    • SpaceX's 1st astronaut launch breaking new ground for style
      This February 2020 photo shows the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule after its arrival to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (SpaceX via AP)
    • Th
  • ohnken in an Extravehicular Mobility Unit suit used for spacewalks. (NASA via AP)
  • Doug Hurley, left, and Robert Behnken pose in front of a Tesla Model X car during a SpaceX launch dress rehearsal at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The NASA astronauts rode to the pad in the electric vehicle made by Elon Musk's company. (Kim Shiflett/NASA via AP)
  • SpaceX's 1st astronaut launch breaking new ground for style
  • SpaceX's 1st astronaut launch breaking new ground for style
    This Feb. 11, 2011 photo provided by NASA shows astronaut Douglas Hurley in a Launch Entry Suit used in space shuttle missions. (Bill Stafford/NASA via AP)
  • SpaceX's 1st astronaut launch breaking new ground for style
    In this Dec. 21, 1968 file photo, Apollo 8 astronauts, suited up and ready to go, walk to a van heading for their Saturn V rocket for their moon orbit mission from Cape Kennedy, Fla. Leading the way is Commander Frank Borman, followed by James A. Lovell and William A. Anders. (AP Photo)
  • SpaceX's 1st astronaut launch breaking new ground for style
    This Thursday, March 19, 2020 photo made available by SpaceX shows NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley during flight simulator testing at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., with SpaceX teams in Firing Room 4 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, SpaceX's Mission Control in Hawthorne, Calif., and NASA flight controllers in Mission Control Houston, for a full simulation of launch and docking of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. (SpaceX via AP)
  • SpaceX's 1st astronaut launch breaking new ground for style
    A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is rolled out of the horizontal integration facility at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Demo-2 mission, Thursday, May 21, 2020, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
  • SpaceX's 1st astronaut launch breaking new ground for style
    This photo provided by Maxar's WorldView-3 satellite shows an overview of Launch Pad 39A and the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft on top of the rocket, Saturday, May 23, 2020, at Kennedy Space Center, in Florida. NASA is preparing for its first manned flight in nearly a decade from the United States. (Satellite image ©2020 Maxar Technologies via AP)
  • SpaceX's 1st astronaut launch breaking new ground for style
    This February 2020 photo shows the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule after its arrival to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (SpaceX via AP)
The white-suited Hurley and Behnken will transfer from the white Tesla to the white Dragon atop the equally white Falcon 9.
"It's going to be quite a show," Reed promised.
No astrovans for SpaceX, crews riding to rockets in Teslas

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