SpaceX dragon spacecraft will send NASA astronauts to the International Space Station for the first time. In the future, Russian astronauts may also take the Dragon spacecraft to go.
According to a report by the Russian Satellite News Agency on May 31, Vladimir Ustimenko, director of the press office of the Russian Aerospace National Group, said that in the future, Russian astronauts Will start to take the US SpaceX manned Dragon spacecraft and Boeing’s “Starliner” to the International Space Station. In exchange, American astronauts will continue to take the Russian spacecraft to space.
At 15:22 on May 30, EST, the Falcon 9 rocket was carried by NASA astronauts Bob Benken and Doug Hurley The manned dragon spacecraft fired from the 39A launch pad of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. At 10:16 on May 31, the Dragon spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station.
This is the first commercial manned space launch by human beings and the first time an astronaut in the United States has entered the orbit from the United States on a US spacecraft since 2011. For 9 years, American astronauts have been flying to space with the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for a fee.
After the US Space Shuttle was retired in 2011, all US tools for transporting astronauts to and from the space station “relied on” Russian spacecraft. However, the fare of the Russian “Union” spacecraft has increased, and a “ship ticket” has risen to about 86 million US dollars.
To change this passive situation, NASA strongly supports the development of commercial manned spaceflight. In 2014, Boeing and SpaceX won large contracts of US $ 4.2 billion and US $ 2.6 billion from NASA, respectively, for the construction of the “Starliner” manned spacecraft and manned dragon spacecraft.
Ustimenko said that Russian astronauts will take the new American manned spacecraft to the International Space Station, “the discussion is within the scope of the next cooperation plan.”
And Ivan Moiseyev, director of the Russian Space Policy Research Institute, believes that one of the negative implications of the successful first flight of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to Russia is Lost the “Soyuz” spaceship contract to transport astronauts to the International Space Station.
Andrei Ionin, an expert at Moscow ’s Tsiolkovsky Space Academy, said if SpaceX started launching all American astronauts. Russia “may lose more than US $ 200 million per year.” “This is a significant loss for the Russian Federal Space Agency’s budget of approximately US $ 2 billion.” “> As for the positive significance, Moiseyev said that this forced Russia to think about the status of its own space industry. “We must be aware that this launch makes SpaceX, which has only 6,000 employees, comparable in space capabilities to the Russian Aerospace Corporation, which has 250,000 employees.”