Known mostly for their prodigality, SpaceX finally launches two American astronauts into orbit from American soil.
Manned space missions had reached a halt ever since the retirement of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011. NASA had recently teamed up with SpaceX and Boeing in order to build spaceships that can send humans to the lower earth orbit. Boeing having reached unexpected outcomes in their last unmanned demo flight, got outrun in the race to send Americans to space again by SpaceX.
Astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley had the honor of bumping their fists in the Crew Dragon space-craft aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket en-route the International Space Station (ISS). The party were scheduled to take off on the 28th of May at 2:30 AM (GMT+6:00), but the weather did not favor them. With 30 million viewers from all over the world watching their live feed on YouTube, SpaceX eventually pulled the plug on the expedition rescheduling it to the 30th at 1:22 AM.
The takeoff was witnessed firsthand from Cape Canaveral by Vice President Mike Pence, Second Lady Karen Pence and President Donald Trump, making Trump only the third President to have witnessed a space launch. The takeoff had sent two people bearing the American flag into orbit from American soil in an American Spaceship.
The docking sequence began as the Crew Dragon space-craft approached ISS at 2:09 AM. American astronaut Chris Cassidy had been waiting to greet the military astronauts. The launch sequence was fully autonomous, yet the astronauts and the space station kept close watch for things that could go south. After the successful completion of the docking sequence, the two joined the Expedition 63 team aboard ISS, which previously had only the one American astronaut. They are to help with maintenance of the space-station, along with scourge around for scientific discoveries.
NASA is yet to clarify on the longevity of the mission. The space-craft is meant to stay in orbit not more than 110 days. The return trip is also a fully-automated process, both the undocking and the journey back.
Previously, Falcon rockets have been seen to be riddled with mechanical faults. Falcon 9 has exhibited great resilience as of now. A recurring of the Apollo 13 incident at this time could cost vast infrastructural expenses as well as the loss of two brave lives.
With the successful completion of the trip to ISS from American soil, geeks such as myself are overly enthusiastic. SpaceX’s plans on sending men to the moon and Mars on 2024 do not sound as redundant anymore. The Demo-2 flight was meant to be the last flight in a series of space launches as confirmation that we are ready for sending men to space. The flight has shown no sign of failure as of now. Upon its successful completion, Falcon 9 can transport at most 4 people at a time to lower earth orbit. This could be a massive breakthrough for scientific expeditions.
The space launch probably means nothing to anyone outside the United States. But we all could use some good news in the middle of this pandemic. All we hear nowadays are news of deaths and fake news callouts. Life is already too depressing. Furthermore, the SpaceX space launch opens possibilities for future endeavors. It shows us all the things we would perhaps be capable of in the future. And most importantly, we can expect a restart of the space race, that died down after the cold war.
