On Friday, SpaceX will make another bold attempt to launch one of its most ambitious missions, after receiving regulatory approval.
The California-based space exploration company has been granted the green-light from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to send four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule.
This will be the first ever human spaceflight mission that SpaceX has conducted for the ISS. The mission, known as Crew-2, will launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida this Friday. The launch vehicle for this mission will be SpaceX’s massive megarocket, the Falcon Heavy.
The Falcon Heavy is one of the most powerful rockets ever built. It can deliver upwards of 54 metric tons into low Earth orbit, more than twice the capacity of the most powerful rockets used in the Apollo era.
The company plans to use the Falcon Heavy to send this mission to the ISS. It is a part of SpaceX’s ongoing effort to revolutionize the way in which humans can travel in space.
The mission will also be carrying several science experiments to the ISS. These experiments will study the effects of deep space on materials and organisms that have been exposed to them. Some of the experiments will also investigate the impacts of long-duration spaceflight on human health and wellbeing.
The four astronauts will be welcomed aboard the ISS by an existing three-member crew aboard, and will remain there for approximately five weeks. During this time, the astronauts will conduct several experiments and perform routine maintenance on the ISS.
The flight is expected to lift off on Friday. Following the launch, the Crew-2 astronauts will be part of a historic achievement in space exploration, as they will be the first crew in a sustainable human spaceflight program supported by SpaceX’s megarocket.