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IPFS News Link • Space Travel and Exploration

WATCH LIVE: SpaceX to Launch Falcon 9 Rocket #CrewDragon (DM-1)

• SpaceX YouTube

Falcon 9 will launch the Crew version of their Dragon spacecraft (Dragon 2) to the International Space Station as part of the first demonstration flights of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The mission, called Demo-1, is currently set to launch at 2:49 a.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. As part of Demo-1, Crew Dragon will dock to the space station on March 3 (around 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time) and deliver roughly 400 pounds of supplies, including a test dummy strapped with sensors that will help let SpaceX and NASA know whether the flight is safe enough for human travelers. On March 8, Crew Dragon will leave the ISS and splashdown into the Atlantic Ocean. The Crew Dragon (also called Dragon 2) is SpaceX's flagship human exploration vehicle. The company has spent nearly all of this past decade working on its development. Since the Space Shuttle Program ended in 2011, NASA has been without a working human spaceflight system, and has instead relied on Russian Soyuz missions to get its astronauts to the ISS and back.


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