Those first crewed CCP flights are loosely scheduled for late 2017 or early 2018, and SpaceX is now building four versions of its crewed Dragon spacecraft in Hawthorne, California, for the missions NASA has ordered.
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CCtCap looks to restore human spaceflight capability and increase how much time astronauts have for scientific research. Both SpaceX and Boeing are contracted to fly crew via the Crew Dragon and CST-100 Starliner respectively.
SpaceX has been awarded a second post-certification mission order for its Crew Dragon manned spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Lueders further noted: “These systems will ensure reliable U.S. crew rotation services to the station, and will serve as a lifeboat for the space station for up to seven months”. The other two orders were given to Boeing in May and December of 2015. All the agency has to do now is to wait for the completion and testing of the spacecraft.
NASA typically places these orders at least two years before their mission dates.
Each company also must successfully complete a certification process before NASA will give the final approval for flight.
The first half of the NEEMO mission will be led by NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, an ISS veteran who was a naval aviator and test pilot before joining the agency.
“We’re making great progress with Crew Dragon”, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said in a statement. On Friday, NASA announced a second crew mission with the private space company after they completed several developmental milestones. “Billed as a high-risk, high-reward test flight, the unpiloted Red Dragon mission aims to be the first commercial spacecraft to go to another planet, and land the heaviest vehicle ever put on the surface of Mars”. Test your SpaceX know-how here.
According to a report in CSMonitor by Joseph Dussault, “On Thursday, NASA sent a team of astronauts and scientists more than 60 feet below sea level for a 16-day underwater expedition”. Their order of flight has yet to be decided. But the price tag was revealed, indirectly, by a NASA administrator at a meeting on Tuesday, Space News reported.
Elon Musk’s commercial space service company, SpaceX is an established partner of NASA when it comes to transporting cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) using its Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft.
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Currently, the agency has to pay more than $80 million a seat to fly one single person into Space. It is unclear exactly when the seventh member will be added, however. He is now the managing editor of the student run newspaper, the Washburn Review.
