After three delays, the first U.S. commercial space flight is set to launch this week. A capsule built by the company SpaceX will take off from Cape Canaveral and head to the International Space Station. If successful, it will be a milestone in NASA's plan to replace its space shuttle program with commercial carriers."We've been launching things into space for 50 years," said NASA's Deputy Administrator Lori Garver. "It's time we did trust our industry to be able to lead the way."
Garver spoke to The Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Emily Kopp Thursday about the upcoming launch.
Aside from weather concerns and any other day-of-the-launch issues, the Falcon 9 rocket is on track to blast off on Saturday, May 19, with a backup date of May 22. The rocket will carry the Dragon capsule into space, on a mission to deliver supplies of food and water to the International Space Station.
"It is something we do need since the retirement of the space shuttle," Garver said. "This has been our plan for replacing the space shuttle, which was so much larger and built the space station by carrying the modules."
The Falcon 9 mission is a smaller, much more focused effort that allows NASA to reduce the cost of space transportation by using the commercial sector, which can open new markets and create new jobs in the U.S.
"We've been working very closely with SpaceX, who is the industry partner on this mission," Garver said, adding that the company has been reviewing all of the flight-readiness activities that used to be NASA's job.
"The last couple of times, we came to do this within the last few months, we found specific software testing that needed to continue to be done and now we're through with that," Garver said. "I talked to the folks last night and they are ready."