NASA has named the first four astronauts who will fly on the first U.S. commercial spaceflights in private crew transportation vehicles being built by Boeing and SpaceX. It will mark a major milestone towards restoring American human launches to U.S. soil as soon as mid-2017. The four astronauts chosen are all veterans of flights on NASA’s Space Shuttles and to the International Space Station (ISS). They are
- Robert Behnken
- Eric Boe
- Douglas Hurley
- Sunita Williams.
They now form the core of NASA’s commercial crew astronaut corps eligible for the maiden test flights on board the Boeing CST-100 and Crew Dragon astronaut capsules.
- The International Space Station (ISS) is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite, in low Earth orbit.
- The space station is as big inside as a house with five bedrooms. It has two bathrooms, a gymnasium and a big bay window.
- The ISS programme is a joint project among five participating space agencies: NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA.
- After the US Space Shuttle program ended in 2011, Soyuz rockets became the only provider of transport for astronauts at the International Space Station.
What is Orion?
Orion is a new NASA spacecraft. The Orion spacecraft will carry astronauts past the moon. And it will bring them safely back to Earth. Orion will be able to travel to an asteroid or even on the journey to Mars.
For more updates, check Science and Technology. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
