First commercial flight to space station set for April 30
Washington - The first commercial spacecraft due to dock with the International Space Station looks ready for an April 30 launch, the US space agency NASA and commercial firm Space X said Monday.
Space X's Dragon spacecraft is to take a three-day flight to the ISS and undertake a series of complicated docking manoeuvres and tests designed to prove it can safely latch onto the orbiting station.
"This will be one of those historic launches with the first commercial vehicle coming to the station to provide supplies," ISS programme director Mike Suffredini told reporters following a meeting to determine the craft was ready for launch.
The Dragon capsule will launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and will carry 521 kilogrammes of cargo, consisting mainly of food for the astronauts, to the station. If all goes as planned it will return to Earth with 660 kilogrammes of discarded cargo.
Though NASA and Space X are confident about the mission, they also stressed that it is only a test with many variables.
"I think we've got a pretty good shot, but it is worth emphasizing that there is a lot that can go wrong in a mission like this," Space X chief Elon Musk said.//DPA
