SpaceX Will Officially Carry Astronauts to the Space Station

SpaceX developed Dragon from a blank sheet to its first mission in just over 4 years.

However, in Friday’s announcement, Nasa said that “determination of which company will fly its mission to the station first will be made at a later time”.

“The Boeing Company of Houston received its first crew mission order in May”.

Even though the first order went to Boeing, it has not yet been determined whether Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner capsule or SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule will go first.

There’ll be champagne corks popping in Texas, as NASA has finally given SpaceX clearance to carry astronauts to the worldwide Space Station.

An artist’s conception shows SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule en route to the worldwide Space Station.

The California company is the second private firm to win a bid for one of four orders to take American astronauts to the worldwide Space Station aboard its Crew Dragon spacecraft.

“Growing a flowering crop is more challenging than growing a vegetative crop such as lettuce”, said Gioia Massa, NASA Kennedy Space Centre scientist for Veggie. “We’re honored to be developing this capability for NASA and our country”, said SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell.

Once manufacturing is complete, each company will need to complete a certification process before final flight approval is given by NASA.

The contract award was a welcome bit of news for SpaceX, whose Falcon 9 rockets now are grounded following a June launch failure.

As part of the contract, both Boeing and SpaceX are entitled to at least two and as many as six missions.

“Over the long term, it also sets the foundation for scientific access to future commercial research platforms in low- Earth orbit”. The resupply missions were going well until back-to-back launch failures involving rockets from Space X and Orbital Sciences placed these efforts under greater scrutiny. The Commercial Crew Program will be involved in all operational phases to ensure crew safety.