Science & Planet is tomorrow an important day for SpaceX, the space of Elon Musk. Then from Cape Canaveral in Florida for the first test instead of the Crew Dragon, a brand new capsule that in the future people in space. This time, there is still a dummy on board, Ripley, the heroine of the legendary Alien movies – but if all goes well, will be there in July, the first astronauts to the international space station ISS fly.
That last would be a historic event, because it is eight years ago that there are still astronauts from U.s. soil to the space were. Over the past years to NASA, its astronauts to send with – expensive – Russian aircraft. With the help of private companies such as SpaceX and Boeing have the space agency that soon no more to do. She therefore invests less than 8 billion in the companies.
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The test flight of this weekend will be a total of six days. After the launch the Crew Dragon a day later, arrive at the international space station (ISS). There will be three residents of the dummy on board is welcome. Ripley will be the trendy white space suit of SpaceX wear. That will also be the suit that astronauts in the future. the
For all clarity: Ripley is not a dead weight. She carries a lot of sensors that the trip to the space station and back, monitored by scientists from SpaceX and space agency NASA. In particular, the forces and accelerations that the future astronauts will experience on board of the aircraft. The information will be used for the manned flights of the Crew Dragon for a successful run. (read on below)