Wednesday's SpaceX Launch Will Transform Our Future

Currently sitting on the historic Launchpad 39a, a SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster is continuing preparations for a historic launch Wednesday, May 27th at 4:33 PM Eastern Standard Time.

What makes this launch so historic?
This will be the first time that humans have been carried to orbit by a booster and spacecraft that are designed, built, owned, and operated by a private company.

This is the 2nd test/demo of the Dragon 2 capsule. The first one was an unmanned flight that took place in March of 2019. On that flight, the Dragon 2 capsule was successfully launched into orbit. It then autonomously approached and docked with the International Space Station. After several days, the capsule separated from the ISS, re-entered Earth's atmosphere and splashed down on March 8, 2019, successfully completing the demonstration flight.

Since the last flight of the Space Shuttle in 2011, the United States has been unable to launch an astronaut into space without having to pay large sums of money to Russia to buy a seat on their Soyuz spacecraft.

Since that time, the Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos has enjoyed an operational monopoly in human spaceflight. This flight will effectively end that monopoly, bringing the cost of sending humans into space down dramatically.

Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley in a dress rehearsal test of all systems, including their space suits which are also made by SpaceX.

Private vs. Government
Since 2011, NASA has been paying Roscosmos and ever-increasing fare to fly their astronauts up to the ISS on their Soyuz spacecraft. Initially, those seats were about $40 million each. The most-recent contract set the price per seat at over $90 million.

The total cost of launching a Falcon 9 mission, including all hardware, fuel, and salaries of all personnel involved is less than $60 million per launch. With a capacity of 7 crew members on the Dragon 2, the seat cost is reduced from over $90 per seat to well-under $1 million per seat.

The Crew Dragon capsule will carry veteran astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) as it rides atop a reusable Falcon 9 Booster. Once the 2nd stage separates from the booster, the booster will descend back to earth and propulsively land on the deck of an Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS), named Of Course I Still Love You.

The Falcon 9 Boosters are designed to be reused up to ten times. So far, the record is five flights with five successful landings. Customers have the option of expending the booster, opting to pay extra to allow the booster to burn up in the atmosphere rather than land for reuse. This enables the F9 to carry payloads to higher orbits if needed.

SpaceX already is building its own corps of private astronauts who are training for future missions. In addition to Bob and Doug, there are two back up crew members that are fully-trained by SpaceX to fly the Dragon should they be needed. These two astronauts will most-certainly fly as the primaries in a future mission.

Open Sourcing and Gamifying Astronaut Training

The founder and visionary behind SpaceX, Elon Musk, is known for disrupting industries that are locked down in oligopoly and monopolies. These industries include the auto, petroleum, road construction, electrical utilities, internet, and others that are in the works. One thing SpaceX most-recently did is release a video game simulation where the gamer tries to dock the Dragon spacecraft with the ISS. The only thing is that the simulation is the exact interface used by the real astronauts on board the Dragon capsule.

Even though this docking system is fully-autonomous, the astronauts are trained to take over and manually dock the capsule if necessary. This simulator is basically training anyone who has the interest to do the same. You can expect that SpaceX will offer even more similar means of training people in the future - hopefully by gamifying much of it.