4 ms·

SpaceX’s first astronaut mission could take off in May

37 points by ajaviaad 7y ago

jp42 7y ago
Success of this will changes a lot of things. USA regaining capability to put humans in orbit. Space proving private companies can safely take humans to space. And overall government's & public's confidence in Spacex for building Starship & possibly providing meaningful transportation infrastructure for Mars colonization.
rtkwe 7y ago
That's exciting. It'll be nice for NASA I'm sure to finally gain independence from the Soyuz launch schedule and the 1 Russian member that always comes with that, letting them rotate crews more easily. Maybe with more craft we could see an inflatable expansion to the station for more crew berths.
- TaylorAlexander 7y ago
  Perhaps, but it won’t be Bigelow Aerospace: https://spacenews.com/bigelow-aerospace-sets-sights-on-free-flying-station-after-passing-on-iss-commercial-module/ https://spacenews.com/bigelow-aerospace-sets-sights-on-free-... Looks like this company may do it though: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/01/28/axiom-wins-nasa-approval-to-attach-commercial-habitat-to-space-station/ https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/01/28/axiom-wins-nasa-approv...
  - rtkwe 7y ago
    Bigelow has always seemed like it was on the edge of collapsing. It'd be interesting to see them actually get their large station launched, I'd love for their to be a commercial alternative if only for there to be less pressure to commercialize the ISS. (An endeavor I think is doomed, there's not enough actual use for it yet that isn't satisfied by the national lab model)
- Bendingo 7y ago
  > ... Soyuz ... the 1 Russian member Well to be fair, it's completely understandable that US astronauts would never be allowed unsupervised access to a Russian spacecraft. Hell, US are lucky they even are granted any Soyuz flights at all, given the crazy Russophobe behaviour.
tectonic 7y ago
It's very likely to slip further before it actually happens. My money's on June or July.
dang 7y ago
This is an announcement of the possibility of an announcement, which is one level of indirection beyond an announcement of an announcement, which is already off topic. On HN there's no harm in waiting for a thing to actually be announced, or rather to actually happen, at which point there will be something new to discuss. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=%22announcement%20of%20an%20announcement%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=%22no%20harm%20in%20waiting%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

37 points by ajaviaad 7y ago

jp42 7y ago

Success of this will changes a lot of things. USA regaining capability to put humans in orbit. Space proving private companies can safely take humans to space. And overall government's & public's confidence in Spacex for building Starship & possibly providing meaningful transportation infrastructure for Mars colonization.

rtkwe 7y ago

That's exciting. It'll be nice for NASA I'm sure to finally gain independence from the Soyuz launch schedule and the 1 Russian member that always comes with that, letting them rotate crews more easily. Maybe with more craft we could see an inflatable expansion to the station for more crew berths.

TaylorAlexander 7y ago
Perhaps, but it won’t be Bigelow Aerospace: https://spacenews.com/bigelow-aerospace-sets-sights-on-free-flying-station-after-passing-on-iss-commercial-module/ https://spacenews.com/bigelow-aerospace-sets-sights-on-free-... Looks like this company may do it though: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/01/28/axiom-wins-nasa-approval-to-attach-commercial-habitat-to-space-station/ https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/01/28/axiom-wins-nasa-approv...
- rtkwe 7y ago
  Bigelow has always seemed like it was on the edge of collapsing. It'd be interesting to see them actually get their large station launched, I'd love for their to be a commercial alternative if only for there to be less pressure to commercialize the ISS. (An endeavor I think is doomed, there's not enough actual use for it yet that isn't satisfied by the national lab model)
Bendingo 7y ago
> ... Soyuz ... the 1 Russian member Well to be fair, it's completely understandable that US astronauts would never be allowed unsupervised access to a Russian spacecraft. Hell, US are lucky they even are granted any Soyuz flights at all, given the crazy Russophobe behaviour.

tectonic 7y ago

It's very likely to slip further before it actually happens. My money's on June or July.

dang 7y ago

This is an announcement of the possibility of an announcement, which is one level of indirection beyond an announcement of an announcement, which is already off topic. On HN there's no harm in waiting for a thing to actually be announced, or rather to actually happen, at which point there will be something new to discuss. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=%22announcement%20of%20an%20announcement%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=%22no%20harm%20in%20waiting%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...