SpaceX has added another two more astronauts to their already growing roster of heroes who will embark on the next space mission to the International Space Station or aptly dubbed ISS. NASA astronaut Shannon Walker alongside Noguchi Soichi, of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency or JAXA, will be joining NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover Jr., who was previously selected for the mission.
If all goes according to plan, this will be the first of many flights that will occur regularly on to the ISS, said NASA, on a press release recently.
So Glover, Hopkins, Noguchi, and Walker are expected to be lifting off a Crew Dragon on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, which is located in the Kennedy Space Center later on this year. They are to spend six months at the ISS for the duration of the mission.
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Before anything else, Crew Dragon's Demo-2 test is scheduled for May and will have to be a success before everything proceeds according to plan. The test will be able to determine that it's safe to launch humans like Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to space from the United States for the very first time since July 8, 2011, which is almost a decade ago. It will also be the latest in SpaceX needs to pass before Crew Dragon will be flight certified to conduct operational crew flights to and fro the International Space Station.
Before this, however, SpaceX has already had a successful test in regards to engine and escape tests. So this is only more of a way to ensure that no more mishaps would happen during the actual flight, which would contain humans into the mix.
The coronavirus pandemic will not deter the launch plans and tests Demo-2 in any means, regardless.
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