NASA greenlights SpaceX test flight to ISS

  1. NASA has given SpaceX the green light to test a new crew capsule by first sending an unmanned craft with a life-sized dummy figure to the International Space Station.The mission is called as Demonstration Mission-1 or DM-1 where Crew Dragon test capsule is scheduled to take off in falcon 9 rocket to the ISS.
  2. This will be the first time the U.S. space agency has let a private-sector company transport their astronauts.
  3. The International Space Station (ISS) is a space station,or a habitable artificial satellite,in low Earth orbit.The ISS programme is a joint project among five participating space agencies: NASA(USA), Roscosmos(Russia), JAXA(Japan), ESA(European Union) and CSA(Canada).
  4. SpaceX is a space technologies company founded by Elon Musk.It  has developed the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launch vehicles, both designed to be reusable, thus reducing the cost of launch.
  5. Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket model designed to allow the transportation of satellites and cargo into orbit.The Dragon Spacecraft module – a free flying spacecraft which holds the cargo – is attached to the top of the Falcon 9.