According to Agence France-Presse, the United States resumed manned spaceflight in May this year after 9 years of relying on Russian manned spacecraft to travel to the International Space Station. flight. The US Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) rocket will transport 3 NASA astronauts and 1 Japanese astronaut to the International Space Station on the 14th, starting their first 6-month routine in the project task.
On the 10th, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) formally certified that the “Denron” developed by SpaceX as a regular astronaut transport is safe. SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, transported two astronauts to the International Space Station in May of this year and returned to Earth again in August without major accidents.
NASA Administrator Jim Brightenstein said: “I am proud to announce that we are resuming the use of American rockets and spacecraft to regularly launch astronauts into space.”
“Dragon” is scheduled to take off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:49 pm on the 14th, carrying three NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, Victor Glover and Michael Howe Pukins (Michael Hopkins) and a Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi (Soichi Noguchi). They are expected to arrive at the International Space Station 8 hours after the rocket launch.
Since 2012, SpaceX has been providing cargo services to the International Space Station. The head of SpaceX flight said in a phone call on the 10th: “In the next 15 months, we will carry out 7 crew and cargo missions for NASA. This means that from December, SpaceX’s “Dragon” The spacecraft will continue to orbit.”
It is expected that SpaceX’s next manned mission will be completed before the end of March 2021, when the spacecraft will carry 1 European, 1 Japanese and 2 American astronauts.
