Friday, July 29, 2016

SpaceX Wins New Crew Mission To ISS

Hawthorne-based SpaceX has just won another mission to the International Space Station, NASA said Friday, to help "restore America's human spaceflight launch capability". According to NASA, the second, post-certification mission by SpaceX will deliver a human crew to the ISS, part of a slate of missions designed to again provide U.S. capability to launch humans to space. Currently, NASA is relying on Russian spacecraft to deliver its astronauts to the ISS. NASA said the new mission comes because SpaceX met the criteria for the award, after success completion of interim developmental milestones and internal design reviews for its Crew Dragon spacecraft, Falcon 9 rocket and associated ground systems. SpaceX now has two missions on its list, with competitor Boeing also with two mission orders from NASA. NASA said SpaceX is currently building four, Crew Dragon spacecraft for the agency, with two for the missions, and the other two intended for qualification testing.