WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th August, 2020) NASA and SpaceX plan the first operational flight of its Crew Dragon spacecraft with four astronauts aboard to take place in late October at the earliest, the space agency said.
"NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than Oct[ober] 23 for the first operational flight with astronauts of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as a part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program," NASA public affairs writer Anna Heiney said in a blog post on Friday.
On August 2, Crew Dragon with two astronauts on board landed in the Gulf of Mexico, finishing its test flight to the International Space Station.
The next flight will carry Crew Dragon commander Michael Hopkins, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Shannon Walker, all of NASA, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) mission specialist Soichi Noguchi for a six-month science mission.
NASA explained that it's choosing the date that best accommodates spacecraft traffic for the upcoming Soyuz crew rotation and meets the needs of the International Space Station.
The launch will follow the arrival of NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos aboard their Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft and the departure of NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner from the space station.
