The first launch of the spacecraft Dragon v2

Spaceship Crew Dragon (Dragon v2)

After several years of postponements and delays, SpaceX and NASA have to carry out the first experimental launch of the new spacecraft Crew Dragon (Dragon v2) tonight (in the morning, MSC ) . It is on it that SpaceX plans to deliver astronauts to the ISS in the future.

As part of the Demo-1 demonstration mission, the Dragon V2 spacecraft will be launched into orbit by the Falcon 9 rocket from the spaceport in the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. If the weather and technical problems do not interfere, the launch will take place on Saturday, March 2, 2019 at 2:49 ET, that is, at 10:49 Moscow time. The live broadcast is on the NASA channel .

There will be no people on the experimental ship, he will carry a mannequin in a spacesuit and will deliver the cargo to the orbital laboratory on the ISS. If the test proves successful, SpaceX can launch the first astronauts into space as early as July of this year.
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“Demo-1 is a test, it’s absolutely true, but we also see it as a real mission, and a very critical mission,” said Kirk Shireman, who runs the ISS program at the Johnson Space Center at NASA, at a press conference . - On board the ISS, there are still three people, so this device, the first to climb the ISS, is obliged to work. He is obliged to work. ”

Demo-1 is part of a NASA program called the Commercial Crew Program with a budget of $ 8 billion, which aims to restore the launch of astronauts on their own ships. The last American shuttle launched in July 2011. Now astronauts are delivering Russian Soyuz missiles to the ISS.

Tomorrow's launch is the first launch of an American-made spacecraft for astronauts since 2011.

Yesterday, the rocket was successfully installed in a vertical position on the launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.



NASA will conduct a live broadcast of the launch with comments from its experts starting at 10:00 MSK (video below), SpaceX organizes its own broadcast.