The United States ended NASA's Space Shuttle mission in 2011 and since then Russia took over the responsibility of ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station. SpaceX is set to ring in changes. The Russians used Soyuz spaceship and their own setup in Russia. They are partners in running the skylab with America and have a regular presence in space research.
NASA has roped in the facilities of Elon Musk who has been playing a major role in the space related activities of the American space agency.
Musk has ensured savings in operational costs by introducing the concept of reusable rockets. Right now, SpaceX is working on creating the platform for the moon mission. One of the first tasks is to ensure a foolproof method of sending astronauts to the ISS. They will use Falcon 9 rockets to power the Dragon crew capsule.
Sky News says in order to prove the reliability of its systems, SpaceX undertook a destruction test. It blew up a Falcon 9 rocket to test the all-important astronaut escape system. That is a part of manned missions and the purpose was to ensure the safe evacuation of personnel during any emergency.
The trial was successful and it marks another step in the positives of the joint venture between NASA and SpaceX, the private entity owned by Elon Musk.
Astronaut abort test of SpaceX
It is all about the proper functioning of the combination of the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon crew capsule. The astronauts would be in the capsule and the rocket will power it to its destination. Astronaut abort test is to ascertain whether the capsule can separate from the rocket in case of an emergency. The test at Cape Canaveral had to be shifted by a day because of bad weather but it went off like a dream. There were two mannequins in the capsule and after separation, it landed in the Atlantic Ocean. An official from SpaceX said, "This test is very important to us ...
a huge practice session." NASA plans to send astronauts back to the Moon with the help of SpaceX. One of them will be a woman. Then come missions to Mars.
Sky News says minutes before lift-off, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk mentioned about the "risky" stakes involved. The Dragon capsule will ferry astronauts to the International Space Station and its next mission could see Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken instead of mannequins. An official from NASA said that the astronaut abort test will pave the road for manned missions that could begin within two months.
Link with SpaceX will help NASA
According to ABC News, a private aerospace company has proved that it can send astronauts of the American space agency to the International Space Station.
The company is SpaceX owned by Elon Musk who can take credit for revolutionizing the concept of traveling in space. Its latest test was a confidence building measure to prove the "escape capabilities" of Crew Dragon for astronauts. Incidentally, this success comes after the failure of a separate NASA Commercial Crew launch carried out in coordination with another company. Right now, the need is to have a reliable system for ferrying astronauts to and from the skylab and NASA feels that SpaceX can deliver.
NASA has confidence in SpaceX
The American space agency has specific targets and SpaceX is turning out to be a reliable partner. Once humans land again on the Moon, the focus will shift to Mars.
NASA already has robots like Curiosity rover on the red planet for more than five years. It is surveying the surface. Then, it has InSight digging into the rocks. These are preparatory works before colonization of the red planet. NASA is training astronauts for the mission to the Moon and Mars and concentrating on robotics, artificial intelligence, and Renewable Energy. America would like to be the first to set foot on the red planet.