Isolation Day 59: Launching America

The First American Astronauts From American Soil in 9 Years

For the first time since the space shuttle, America is about to launch two astronauts from American soil. This is BIG. Not only will this mean more NASA Astronauts in space but it also gives other nations a way to get people into space.

Currently, only the Russian Soyuz rocket is capable of taking people to the International Space Station, which has given Russia the opportunity to dramatically increase how much they charge for each astronaut. The other downside to the Soyuz is that it can only handle 3 astronauts at a time.

Todays Launch could change all of that. The SpaceX Crew Dragon is capable of taking up to 7 crew members to the ISS and has the ability to greatly reduce the cost of each person heading to the ISS. for a seat on the Soyuz rocket, it currently costs around $75 million. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, on the other hand, is reported to have cost $55 Million a seat. The price of the Soyuz may drop now that it has competition, not only in the form of the Crew Dragon but also of Boeing’s Starliner Capsule (once it finishes testing) that is estimated to cost $90 Million.

This will create a price war for seats on each of the rockets, that will benefit both governments and private citizens lucky enough to be able to afford it.

I’m going to be trying something new today. I’m going to try and live blog Demo 2. As I mentioned a few days ago, I’m going to be trying to watch the whole 24 hours of live coverage NASA is streaming on it’s YouTube channel. Whilst I would like to stream alongside, it would definitely, make it easier than me typing badly for 24 hours, My internet is rubish and can barley cope streaming from YouTube most days.

So I’ve found a new plugin for WordPress called Arena.IM that I’m going to give a go and hopefully you’ll see the results

Did you Watch Demo 2? What are your thoughts on the launch/mission? Let me know in the comments below.