SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Arrived at Cape Canaveral
The American aerospace manufacturer, SpaceX is preparing its first Crew Dragon capsule for launching on a test flight later this year. The spacecraft has already reached Cape Canaveral in order to undergo preparatory measures, after a few weeks of testing at NASA’s Plum Brook Station in Ohio. We are not aware yet of a launch date for this unpiloted mission. This event might take place at some point in the fall, but we are not sure what to expect.
The spacecraft will ultimately take astronauts to the International Space Station
The Crew Dragon spaceflight was produced in Hawthorne, California, at SpaceX’s headquarters. It appears that there is another test flight scheduled for early 2019, involving a second Crew Dragon spaceship. A clear date for this mission has not been announced by either NASA or SpaceX.
The Crew Dragon space vehicle that was appointed to the Demo-1 mission was exposed to an extremely cold environment, resembling the one of space, in order to see if it could survive the conditions. All testing that the capsule was subjected to seems to have gone pretty well. In the upcoming months, the crews at Cape Canaveral will make sure that the spacecraft has all the necessary equipment, such as parachutes, sensors, propellant and other things that are necessary for the unpiloted test flight. Everything needs to be planned perfectly, as this spaceship will later have to take astronauts to a journey to the ISS.
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft will be joining the party
Based on a statement from Kirk Shireman, NASA’s space station program manager, new target dates for both CST-100 Starliner and the Crew Dragon are to be expected soon, in the not-too-distant future. We hope that we will have more exciting news about the future missions in the following weeks.
As our second lead editor, Anna C. Mackinno provides guidance on the stories Great Lakes Ledger reporters cover. She has been instrumental in making sure the content on the site is clear and accurate for our readers. If you see a particularly clever title, you can likely thank Anna. Anna received a BA and and MA from Fordham University.
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