Hawthorne (USA) (AFP)
US astronauts could fly into space from the United States for the first time since 2011 at the beginning of 2020, perhaps in the first quarter, said the NASA administrator Thursday during a visit to the US factory of his partner SpaceX.
The space firm SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, built the NASA Crew Dragon spacecraft for the link between the Earth and the International Space Station (ISS), but development has been delayed, especially after the explosion. a capsule during a test of ground engines last April.
The delays created public tensions between NASA and SpaceX, but Elon Musk said Thursday, receiving NASA boss Jim Bridenstine at his Hawthorne headquarters and plant in Los Angeles, that the aircraft should be delivered to Cape Town. Canaveral Florida by the end of the year.
"If all goes well, it would be in the first quarter of next year," Jim Bridenstine told reporters, referring to the launch of the first manned Crew Dragon mission.
"But we will not take undue risks because the safety of our astronauts and the success of the mission are the number one priority", he said, alongside the two astronauts chosen for this first flight, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.
Among the obstacles that remain to be crossed: new tests thrusters, as well as parachutes, whose design had to be reviewed after unsatisfactory tests.
"The parachutes look simple, but it's not easy at all," said Elon Musk. "We want to pass ten release tests before sending astronauts".
Since the end of the space shuttle, NASA totally depends on Russia to send its astronauts to the ISS, at the rate of 85 million dollars instead.
The delay was already about three years ago when SpaceX made its first empty Crew Dragon mission last March, with a successful return to the ISS. The first manned flight should have been last summer, but the April crash forced SpaceX and NASA to conduct new tests.
"Honestly, if nothing happens in a testing program, I would say that the testing program is not rigorous enough," said Elon Musk.
© 2019 AFP