The first demonstration flight of unmanned spacecraft Crew Dragon company SpaceX to the International space station will take place on January 7, 2019. Information about this appeared on Wednesday evening on the official website space Agency NASA. The launch with the launch vehicle, the Falcon 9 will be the site of the Space center of John F. Kennedy, who served at the time and as a launch site for launches of lunar missions “Apollo”.
“This will be the first unmanned demonstration flight under the commercial manned program, the result will be obtained information about the characteristics of the Falcon 9 spacecraft Crew Dragon, [operation] systems, ground support, and the orbital docking system, and [to be tested] landing apparatus. The data obtained will be used for the certification of SpaceX, allowing for manned flights to the ISS,” — said in the message.
The robotic version of the Dragon spacecraft used for missions to the ISS since 2010. In may 2014, the company introduced a manned version of the Dragon Crew vehicle (formerly known as Dragon v2). In the autumn of the same year, SpaceX signed with NASA in the amount of $ 2.6 billion on completion of the unit and its certification for flights to the ISS. A year later the parties signed an agreement on two flights to the International space station.
The first manned launch Crew Dragon according to current plans, to be held in June 2019. Between unmanned and manned launches planned demonstration tests of the emergency rescue vehicle.
Commercial contract for the delivery of American astronauts to the ISS NASA has with the Boeing company. Latest modify for these purposes, your ship CST-100 Cockpit. Manned and unmanned test launches of the device is scheduled for March and August 2019, respectively. Between launches is also planned to test the emergency rescue system.
To output the Cockpit in low earth orbit, the company will use the booster, Atlas V, developed by United Launch Alliance.
Thanks to the cooperation with private companies NASA he wants to refuse services of the Russian Federal space Agency, the ships of which American astronauts get to the ISS and back to Earth. The cooperation between the two national space agencies on this issue is ongoing since 2011, when NASA decided to close the space Shuttle program that lasted 30 years.
To discuss the news in our Telegram chat.