What’s So Special About the Next SpaceX Launch
Cape Canaveral, Fla.—The Space Coast, lined with idyllic beaches and swaying palm trees, faced a quiet future when the space shuttles stopped flying nearly eight years ago, and the famed spacecraft rolled off the launchpads and into museums. Then Elon Musk and SpaceX moved in, under a lease with NASA, and brought their own rockets.
The company tweaked the launchpads to support its own operations, and began launching new missions: commercial satellites built by manufacturers from around the world, cargo ships packed with supplies for the International Space Station, even top-secret missions for the U.S. government. In the past few years, the Falcon 9 rocket has flown so regularly, and without incident, that the launches now feel almost routine.
The next mission leaves Earth in the very early–morning hours of Saturday. This time, the rocket will carry an unprecedented payload: a spacecraft designed to carry humans.
The mission is a test, the first flight of a newly designed system. No humans will be on board—just 400 Ripley, for the protagonist and sci-fi feminist icon of the 1979 film . But if the mission goes well, people could be riding in SpaceX spacecraft as early as July. The first passengers—two NASA astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley—have already been selected and begun their training.
