A big milestone for space travel
Crew being delivered to the space station on a new ship
SpaceX has spent years preparing for this day. After launching many cargo missions up to the space station, they are finally going to send astronauts.
For the last 9 years the US has been sending astronauts to the space station via Russian rockets ever since it decommissioned the Space Shuttle in 2011.
The new mission called ‘Demo 2’ will take two astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley who have both previously been to the station flying onboard the space shuttle.
‘Demo 1’ mission was a test mission last year, where SpaceX flew to the space station controlled remotely with a dummy person in the pilot seat. This mission was a complete success apart from after it returned to Earth, a further test was performed which blew up the crew capsule. After an investigation to the cause NASA felt that SpaceX was ready to perform Demo 2.
Update: Successful launch on the 30th May 2020
Update: Successful landing on the 3rd Aug 2020
