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SpaceX is in the final stages of certifying a second pad for cosmonaut launch , which should relieve launching site congestion and help the company scale the number of homo it air to space .
SpaceXhas execute 13 crewed missions , and all of them launched from Launch Complex 39A at NASA ’s Kennedy Space Center . It ’s the only stamp pad currently certified for human spaceflight . But the company has long signify to kick upstairs a second pad — SLC-40 atthe neighboringCape Canaveral Space Force Station — to expand its crew launch capacity .
The company is nearly there . Last fall , SpaceX workers installed a work party access arm to the launching tower , a key piece of base that allows astronauts access to the crew Dragon space vehicle . The company also establish a Modern parking brake egress organisation at the pad to allow the gang a quick outflow in the case of an anomaly .
The organisation , which is essentially a long Orange River chute that stretches from the crew tower to the priming , will help SpaceX “ weighing machine to freehanded tug and starship ( think 100 people on Starship),”VP of Launch Kiko Dontchev say in a societal spiritualist C. W. Post .
squad try out the new parking brake chutes from the pad 40 crew tower in Floridapic.twitter.com/rWVj7zaHp0
— SpaceX ( @SpaceX)March 19 , 2024
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As a next step , SpaceX is going to launch the CRS-30 load resupply commission . That missionary post , which is part of a serial of now - routine load missions the company performs for NASA , is due to airlift - off tomorrow at 4:55 p.m. EDT . As the name of the mission suggest , it is the caller ’s thirtieth mission deliver essential material to astronauts aboard the ISS since 2012 .
In a medium teleconference in February , SpaceX ’s VP of figure and flying reliability , Bill Gerstenmaier , said the freight flight is an incremental step to astronaut launches . Both cargo and crew missions use variants of the company ’s Dragon space vehicle .
“ We would like to do a cargo trajectory first if we can . We retrieve CRS-30 is probably the right time to do that , ” he said . “ The work ’s moderately much completed at the pad . [ We ’ve ] got some stuff to do next week , but we ’ll be in unspoiled flesh for CRS-30 . ”
