SpaceX and Boeing are competing to become the first private company to shuttle astronauts to the ISS. But before SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon capsule or Boeing’s Starliner can put humans onboard the station, NASA needs to install a special adapter that allows these private astronaut taxis to dock with the station.
The first of two such adapters will ride to the space station on a SpaceX flight slated for mid-July, NASA announced yesterday. One adapter was supposed to ride to the space station last June, but it was destroyed when SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket exploded minutes after launch.
When the adapter finally does arrive at the space station, a station robot named Dextre will pull it out of the Dragon’s trunk and position it over one of the station’s ports. Astronauts would then perform a spacewalk to finish the installation.
It’s still unclear for now when exactly we will see the new docking equipment being used, but putting it up on the station is a big step toward a future when private companies are regularly flying people into space, and doing so from America (the latter of which hasn’t happened since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011) .