NASA and SpaceX try again. The launch of the Crew Dragon is scheduled for Saturday 30 March, the shuttle of Elon Musk's space company - Tesla's number one - which should bring American aeronauts back into orbit starting from American soil and with a rocket entirely made in the USA.
The launch, initially scheduled for Wednesday 27 May, failed a few minutes before departure due to bad weather, leaving a bad taste in the mouths of observers from all over the world. "Inevitable", many commented: to carry out a launch, the conditions must be perfect and on 27 May the values of the electric fields on the surface and of the cumulonimbus formations in the launch area and the danger of lightning would have seriously jeopardized the success of theoperation which was therefore rescheduled for 21.22 (Italian time) on Saturday 30 May.
It will be a historic moment. Not only because after nine years the US could finally put an end to the monopoly of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, but also and above all because Saturday's event will be the first launch to be operated by a private space company, SpaceX, which for the first time in its (recent) history will bring men aboard its rockets. If successful, this operation could radically change the future of global aerospace travel.
“This is a unique moment where all Americans can stop for a moment and to watch the country achieve something astounding again“, said the chief administrator of NASA, Jim Bridenstine, in the last press conference a few hours after the launch. "This room is now almost empty", he said referring to the anti-Covid measures, "but for this occasion we would have liked to see it full of journalists and space enthusiasts".
