NASA¡¯s pursuit for a human spaceflight yet again for the Unites States of America was bound to take wings this year around between April to June. Despite the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic and the resources of the country being unidirectional to fighting the virus outbreak, NASA will be able to stick to its timeline and carry on with the launch sometime in May.
The confirmation comes through a media accreditation invitation on Wednesday sent by both the parties involved - NASA and SpaceX. Then invites mentions the timeframe for the mission, to be ¡°no earlier than mid-to-late May.¡±
The invite is for the Demonstration Mission 2 (aka Demo-2) commercial crew launch ¨C the very first in the commercial crew program that is meant to carry astronauts to space. SpaceX was already ready on its part, having completed the Crew Dragon spacecraft in the earlier months.
The mission will mark the first time for a SpaceX spacecraft to carry humans to outer space. All the manned trips to the International Space Station to date were being carried out by Russia¡¯s Roscosmos space agency and its Soyuz spacecraft.
As per a report by Techcrunch, NASA mentioned in its invitation to the media that it is ¡°proactively monitoring the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation as it evolves¡± and that it will ¡°communicate any updates that may impact mission planning or media access, as they become available.¡± In addition, the space agency is taking precautions to ensure top health to Hurley and Behnken, the two astronauts meant to be in the SpaceX shuttles for the manned mission.
The report also mentions that NASA has maintained a ¡®Stage 3¡¯ state of contingency operation in most of its facilities. This means that all NASA employees are on mandatory work from home unless required to be physically present in office for a mission-related activity. Some facilities, like NASA¡¯s Ames in California county, are also completely closed citing the condition in the region.