For the first time, NASA is relying on a recycled SpaceX rocket and capsule for a crew.
Astronaut Megan McArthur has a great pleasure in the reused spaceship ready to take off on Thursday morning. In a “fun twist,” she will be in the same place in the same capsule that her husband, Bob Behnken, made last spring for a test flight to the International Space Station.
“It’s a kind of fun thing we can share. I can see him and say, “Hey, you can hand over the keys. I’m ready to go now, “she said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
While their 7-year-old son, Theo, is becoming a professional at launching his parents, McArthur said he is “not very excited” that he has been gone for six months. She and her three crewmates will spend so much time at the space station.
This will be the third SpaceX crew flight for NASA from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in less than a year. Commercial flights ended US dependence on Russian missiles launched from Kazakhstan to take astronauts to and from the space station after the shuttles were withdrawn.
SpaceX’s Benji Reed said Tuesday that the private company had already put six people into space – as much as NASA’s Mercury Project did in the early 1960s, when it launched the first Americans. The next flight will increase this number to 10.
Some important moments of the SpaceX flight:
Use, recycle, repeat
Both the Dragon capsule and the Falcon missile for this mission have once again grown.
The capsule launched the first SpaceX crew in May, while the rocket picked up the second set of astronauts, who are still at the space station. For SpaceX, recycling is essential for space exploration, Reed said, reducing costs, increasing flights and destinations and allowing more types of people to board.
Each capsule is designed to be launched at least five times with a crew. SpaceX and NASA are evaluating how many times a Falcon can safely launch astronauts. For satellites, Falcons can be used for 10 flights.
The company uses the same type of rocket and similar capsules to power the stations and recycles them as well.
An international crew
T
This is the most diverse international crew to date for SpaceX
. NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, a retired army colonel, is the commander of the spacecraft, with McArthur, oceanographer, as his pilot
. Thomas Pesquet, a former Air France pilot, represents the European Space Agency
. Engineer Akihiko Hoshide worked for the Japanese Space Agency for almost 30 years and helped build the space station
. Everyone, except McArthur, has already visited the 420-kilometer outpost. But she ventured 160 miles higher on the space shuttle, participating in the last mission of NASA’s 2009 Hubble Space Telescope.
. The four began a new tradition of recycled missiles for SpaceX crews, writing their initials in the soot of their boosr.
.ON Appetite
WETIT
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With French and Japanese astronauts flying together, the restaurant promises to reach new heights. Hoshide takes over curry and rice, as well as canned fish and yakitori – grilled chicken and skewers – but no
sushi. Pesquet had a Michelin-starred chef who prepared French delicacies: beef with red wine and mushroom sauce, potato tart and truffled onions and almond tart with caramelized pears. There is also Crepes Suzette. Pesquet said last weekend he had “some national pressure” to fly to France
uisine. His crewmates also had high expectations: “OK, we fly with a Frenchman, better b
Coming and going
FC coming and going
& Merg
Five days after this crew arrived at the space station, one of the Japanese astronauts and the three Americans who have been there since November will be caught in their spa
ceX capsule to come home. NASA wants some time in orbit between the two crews, so that newcomers can benefit from the experience of their colleagues there. SpaceX is targeting an April 28 explosion in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast
from Tallahassee, Florida. The company is already consulting with the Coast Guard to prevent recreational craft from swarming the area, as they did for the SpaceX crew’s first blow in August. Several coastguards are aware of space travel.