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Март
2019

Countdown as SpaceX, NASA prepare to test new astronaut capsule

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Eight years after the last manned US space flight, NASA and SpaceX are preparing to test a new space capsule for astronauts on Saturday - although for now the only occupant will be a dummy named Ripley.

The new capsule will blast off on board a rocket built by SpaceX - the space company of billionaire Elon Musk - at 0249 (0749 GMT) on Saturday from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Its destination is the International Space Station, which it is scheduled to reach by Sunday, with a return to Earth next Friday.

If the flight goes smoothly, NASA plans to put two astronauts on board SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule by the end of the year.

The excitement was palpable Friday at Cape Canaveral, where a day earlier the rocket was wheeled out of its hangar and staged in a vertical position on the legendary launch pad where the Apollo Moon missions took off.

"It's been a long eight years," said Bob Cabana, the Kennedy Space Center's director and a former astronaut.

"It's exciting to see a crewed vehicle, the SpaceX Dragon, up there on a Falcon 9 on pad 39A," said Cabana, who witnessed the last space shuttle flight return to Cape Canaveral on July 21, 2011.

After the shuttle...




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