Space X launched a manned version of the first private spaceship to the ISS

Ilona Mask Space X launched a driving version of the Dragon-2 ship (Crew Dragon) to the International Space Station (ISS). This is the first test of the new Space X ship. This time he went into space without a crew: the ship should deliver to the ISS mannequin and about 180 kg of cargo. If everything goes well, the flight with the crew on board will take place in July.

Read more. The broadcast of the launch was carried out on the company's twitter .

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1101742400370696192

It is yet known that Crew Dragon has successfully entered orbit, all its systems work normally - NASA reported this. According to the plan, the ship should arrive at the ISS on March 3, and five days later, on March 8, to return to Earth and lead to the Atlantic Ocean.
On board, instead of people, there is a mannequin of Ripley - this name was given to him by Ilon Musk in honor of the heroine of the film "Aliens." The mannequin must confirm that the flight on the new Space X will be safe for the crew.
If everything goes well, in April, Space X plans to test the emergency cessation system. And three months later, in July, the Crew Dragon ship will go into space with the crew on board.

Crew Dragon is a reusable spaceship, developed by NASA. It is designed for seven crew members.
This successful launch marks the new chapter in the superiority of the United States in space and brings us closer to the time when American astronauts will again be able to go into space on American ships, the director of NASA Jim Braidenstein wrote after the successful launch of the ship on his Twitter.

https://twitter.com/jimbridenstine/status/11017555670792192002?fbClid=iwarsujdlndlnxbk9yttvoj3pqe4kdxq

Context. Before the end of the Dragon-2 tests, the Union has no analogues-after the shuttle program was closed in 2011, this is the only ship that delivers astronauts to the ISS.

In November of the past, when launching a Russian ship, an accident occurred. The crew survived - the cosmonaut "Roscosmos" Alexei Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Nick Hayig made an emergency landing in Kazakhstan. However, the flights of the Union had to be suspended before the end of the investigation.
If the tests of American missiles are successful and they will prove their reliability, it is clear that it will not be easy to compete with the technical characteristics and convenience with modern private devices, which were developed back in the 1960s, said The Bell Mikhail Kokorich, the founder of the Momentus company, which develops new engineering technologies for cosmic flights.
The cost of a chair to send a Soyuz one astronaut into space has risen since 2006 from $ 25 million to $ 81 million. The Wall Street Journal claims that flights with Dragon-2 will be cheaper.

https://twitter.com/wsj/status/1101665929895862276

Valeria Pozchanyuk