America wants to prove its hold over space Travel and is tying up with Boeing and SpaceX to send astronauts using everything American. It has announced a team of seven men and four women astronauts who will go into orbit on crew capsules built by these firms. As Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator has said – “For the first time since 2011, we are on the brink of launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil."
Sky News reports that this is seen as a major development after years of obstacles in sending crews to space. The move has been hailed by President Donald Trump.
He has gone on Twitter to announce – “exciting things happening. Space Force!"
Meet the astronauts who could soon be blasting off for the space station aboard spacecraft built by Boeing and SpaceX https://t.co/mxuVfz2pwo
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 4, 2018
NASA wants to be independent
The American space agency has been using Russian capsules to send astronauts to the ISS by paying more than $80m per seat. Once Boeing and SpaceX enter the scene, the trips will become economical. Of course, some more testing needs to be done to gain confidence because Boeing had to abort a recent mission due to technical problems. Therefore, both the aviation companies will concentrate on developing various systems to ensure that the astronauts can journey to the International Space Station ISS by next spring or summer.
SpaceX has created its Dragon while Boeing has its Starliner. Both have been funded by NASA and have already been involved in delivering cargo to the space station since 2012. They will now have to transport astronauts. Among them will be old-timers who have already been to the ISS and a couple of newbies.
A new phase begins in space travel
The United States has always been leading in the space race and is keen to maintain the advantage as the world ventures into new territories like the colonization of distant planets. The Space adds that Boeing and SpaceX will be launching crewed test missions to prove their systems for transporting astronauts to ISS.
A total of four flights have been planned on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner ahead of the scheduled launch to the International Space Station. The success of the crewed test flights will lead to subsequent flights of both the vehicles to check for their ability to undertake long-duration missions to reach the goal.
The astronauts who will fly in Boeing's CST-100 Starliner will be NASA astronauts Eric Boe, Nicole Aunapu Mann and Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson who is a former NASA astronaut and space shuttle commander. The tentative launch will be in mid-2019. For the long-duration missions, there will be veteran NASA astronaut Sunita Williams who is a former ISS commander and first-time flyer Josh Cassada.
