In 2020, SpaceX will launch its first manned space craft and send it to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX has done 20 supply runs to the ISS, and even sent a Crew Dragon carrying nothing but a test dummy, but this will be the first time a private company has sent astronauts to space.
It’s also a special moment for the United States. For the past nine years, the only way an American astronaut could get to space was to buy a seat on a Russian Soyuz rocker. Cost: $90,000,000. SpaceX is bringing that job back to America. And not only is the spacecraft built in the U.S., and launching from the U.S., it’s cheaper than the Soyuz ride.
Watch the video to learn more about what makes the Crew Dragon so advanced.