12 Established 1961 Health & Science Sunday, May 3, 2020 NASA, SpaceX target historic spaceflight WASHINGTTON: NASA and SpaceX training for the “Demo-2” mission for said Friday they were pressing ahead with years, will dock with the International plans to launch astronauts to space from Space Station (ISS) and remain there for US soil for the first time in nearly a between one to four months, depending decade later on this month, despite the on when the next mission takes place, said coronavirus pandemic. Robert Behnken NASA’s Steve Stich. Crew Dragon is able and Douglas Hurley, both veterans of the to remain in orbit for around four months Space Shuttle program that was shuttered (119 days). Hurley, who was the pilot on in 2011, will blast off from the Kennedy the last Space Shuttle mission, admitted it Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida was “disappointing” that the launch won’t on May 27. be a public affair, with crowds discour- Should the mission succeed, the US aged from gathering at Cape Canaveral to will have achieved its goal of no longer witness the spectacle. having to buy seats on Russian Soyuz “We won’t have the luxury of our fami- rockets to give its astronauts rides to the ly and friends being there at Kennedy to International Space Station (ISS). It is watch the launch but it’s obviously, the also an important stage in NASA’s new right thing to do in the current environ- economic model: the space agency has ment,” he said. spent billions on contracts with both SpaceX and Boeing to develop space- Win for SpaceX ships that will each have to make six The mission is a major milestone for round trips to the ISS. SpaceX, the company founded by Elon The model is supposed to save tax- Musk, who also leads and founded payers from financial black holes of past Tesla. His firm, which was started in programs, as well as some still to come- 2002, has now overtaken aerospace notably the giant Space Launch System behemoth Boeing, which failed in the rocket that is supposed to take NASA uncrewed demonstration mission of its back to the Moon but is plagued by cost Starliner spacecraft last year and will overrun and scheduling delays. have to start over. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine SpaceX, which has received billions told reporters that the SpaceX Crew of dollars from NASA since the late Dragon capsule will be only the fifth class 2000s, has been supplying cargo to the of US spacecraft to take humans into ISS since 2012, and has established orbit, after the storied Mercury, Gemini, itself as the leader in the private space Apollo and Space Shuttle programs. “If sector thanks to its reusable rocket, the In this file photo, employees of SpaceX work on the Crew Dragon reusable spacecraft after a press conference at SpaceX you look globally, this will be the ninth Falcon 9. “I’ll feel a little relief when headquarters in Hawthorne, California. — AFP time in history when we put humans on a they’re in orbit, I’ll feel more relief when brand new spacecraft,” said Bridenstine. they get to the station and then obvi- the program, but Shotwell said all pre- “I think we’re really doing a great job control room will be spaced six feet (two “We’re going to do it here in the midst ously, I will start sleeping again when cautions were being taken to protect the to ensure that we are not impacting the meters) apart. of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m going to they’re back safely on the planet Earth,” astronauts. “We are ensuring that only safety or the health of the astronauts’ Takeoff is scheduled for 4:42 pm tell you this is a high priority mission for said Gwynne Shotwell, the company’s essential personnel are near them. lives.” Half of SpaceX’s engineers have (2042 GMT) on May 27, with space sta- the United States of America,” he added. chief operating officer. They’re wearing masks and gloves. We’re been teleworking, and on the day of the tion docking scheduled about 19 hours Behnken and Hurley, who have been The pandemic has, naturally, impacted cleaning the training facility twice daily. launch, NASA personnel in the mission later, on May 28. — AFP