NASA, SpaceX target Oct. 31 for historic manned mission to space station

NASA and SpaceX are targeting 2:40 a.m. EDT Saturday, Oct. 31, for the launch of the agency's SpaceX Crew-1 mission with astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), according to a NASA briefing on Tuesday.

Astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker of NASA and Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will be carried to the station on the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The launch will be the first time an international crew will fly aboard a NASA-certified, commercially-owned and operated American rocket and spacecraft from American soil, said NASA.

Following the launch, the Crew-1 astronauts are scheduled to arrive at the space station for a six-month science mission aboard the orbiting laboratory.

NASA is in the final stages of the data reviews needed ahead of certification following the agency's SpaceX Demo-2 test flight launched in May 30 and returned on Aug. 2 this year.

TV BRICS reports with reference to Xinhua News Agency.


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