SPACEX CREW DRAGON SPACECRAFT MARKS DEBUT UNMANNED FLIGHT

Context:

  • The Crew Dragon capsule of Space X has successfully docked with the International Space Station.
  • The demonstration mission is named as Demo-1.
  • It was a test mission before it can begin taking US astronauts into space.
  • After the successful docking, the crew members of International Space Station opened the hatch of the space capsule and, for the first time, penetrated its interior in space.
  • During the mission, Flight computers guided the spacecraft directly into a docking port, unlike the previous cargo Dragon spacecraft that were attached to the space station after captured by a robotic arm.
  • Demo-1 was a rehearsal to demonstrate that the vehicle is reliable and safe so that NASA can resume manned flights from US soil this year and reduce its reliance on Russia to ferry its astronauts to the space station since the end of the US space shuttle program in 2011 after a 30-year run.
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