The Asian Age

SpaceX no- load rocket test is delayed: Nasa

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Washington: Nasa has announced that SpaceX’s no- load rocket test has been pushed back to March 2 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Nasa has made SpaceX and Boeing responsibl­e for transporti­ng astronauts starting this year. SpaceX uses its Falcon 9 rocket, at the top of which is fixed a Dragon capsule specially designed to accommodat­e astronauts. This capsule is meant to take astronauts to the Internatio­nal Space Station. Before launching with humans aboard, however, SpaceX must perform a noload mission. It was originally set for early January and the date of March 2 is not set in stone. Any technical glitch still could postpone the test. If all goes well, the first manned flight is scheduled for July 2019. At Boeing, the no- load test will not take place until April, with a manned mission starting in August. Founded by Elon Musk, SpaceX makes most of its money from multibilli­on dollar contracts with Nasa and satellite launches. SpaceX in November won authorizat­ion from US officials to put nearly 12,000 satellites into orbit in order to boost cheap, wireless internet access by the 2020s. Serial entreprene­ur Musk has risen to prominence with a series of ambitious ventures, especially Tesla, which has boosted production of its Model 3 electric car and has continued to enjoy strong demand for the vehicle. Other Musk ventures include OpenAI, Neuralink and the Boring Company, which focuses on infrastruc­ture and tunnels.

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