NASA gave the green light to SpaceX to transport four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) next week after completing a formal review of flight readiness. The lift will take place as scheduled on April 22 at 6:11 AM ET at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The upcoming release of Crew Dragon especially marks some awards for Elon Musk’s space adventure. Not only is it the first flight of the crew using a recycled Falcon and Dragon ship, right Phys.org, but it is also the first with two international partners. The Falcon 9 rocket features the same first stage that launched astronauts to the ISS in November, while the capsule (called the Endeavor) carried NASA’s Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to and from the space station last spring.
Both are reusable and are part of the wider range of SpaceX spacecraft. Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket, designed to carry payloads and spacecraft equipped in orbit. It has the same Merlin engine as the largest Falcon Heavy and has been used in a total of 122 launches. While the Dragon is a capsule equipped with 16 Draco thrusters for orbit maneuvers and several parachutes for re-entry and landing.
This time, the mission’s astronauts include Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, along with Akihiko Hoshide of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency and Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency. They will spend six months aboard the ISS and will replace the four crew members who return home.
All that’s left is to fix a minor issue before launching. SpaceX Vice President Bill Gerstenmaier said the company noticed that a little more liquid oxygen fuel was pumping into the tanks in the first stage than they had realized. Engineers are currently making sure that the difference does not pose any safety hazard. If the problem is resolved as planned, the astronauts should explode in time and dock at the station on the morning of April 23. You will be able to watch the launch live on NASA TV.
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