NASA has ordered its first commercial crew mission from private, California-based spaceflight company SpaceX — an official authority to launch its astronauts from the United States to the International Space Station (ISS).
The space agency’s Commercial Crew Program has allowed private firms SpaceX and Boeing to ferry U.S. astronauts to and from the ISS. This is the second out of four guaranteed NASA orders under the contract, with Boeing receiving its first mission order back in May.
This commercial crew mission is poised for late 2017, but the exact date is yet to be revealed.
Commercial Crew Program manager Kathy Lueders at NASA said it exciting for the two companies’ spacecrafts to launch their first crew missions. She highlighted the importance of having at least two homebred capabilities “to deliver crew and critical scientific experiments from American soil to the space station.”
Currently, NASA does not have a primary space vehicle and needs to rely on the Russian Federal Space Agency’s facilities, costing $80 million to bring only one American astronaut into lower Earth orbit. The Commercial Crew Program allows the astronauts to reach the ISS on a vehicle made in the U.S. and at a lower cost.
The missions will take place on the Crew Dragon of SpaceX and CST-100 Starliner of Boeing. SpaceX’s system, which includes the spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket, has surpassed a development and certification process and has achieved “design maturity” in order to be assembled and tested for launch.
"[Astronauts] will be riding in one of the safest, most reliable spacecraft ever flown,” said SpaceX president and CEO Gwynne Shotwell of NASA astronauts to be on board the Crew Dragon in 2017.
Mission orders are created two to three years before projected mission dates, giving time for manufacturing and assembly of the spacecrafts and launch systems. However, there is still every chance of delaying the missions as planned; NASA administrator Charles Bolden had been vocal about the program’s underfunding.
At any rate, the mission is expected to carry a maximum of four crew members and around 220-pound pressurized cargo. The spacecraft is expected to stay at the ISS for up to 210 days to function as an option for emergency situations.
Whichever of the SpaceX or Boeing spacecrafts will be chosen, the mission with be the first manned launch from American soil since the Space Shuttle's final flights in 2011.
