For NASA, it will mark the beginning of using private firms as a "taxi service" to fly its crew to and from the space station. It comes after a demonstration flight in May which was the first time a crewed mission took off from US soil since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011. In 2014, it awarded SpaceX and Boeing contracts to provide crewed launch services to the space station as part of its Commercial Crew Program. The SpaceX certification ends NASA's reliance on Russia and comes with a price of about 55 million US dollars (£40m) per astronaut. The craft is expected to dock with the space station after a journey set to last around nine hours.

Source: Daily Mirror November 14, 2020 02:48 UTC