COMMERCIAL CREW

Musk says the construction is taking place near Launch Pad 39-A.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Another group of astronauts is set to lift off from the Space Coast this week. The SpaceX Falcon 9 Crew-3 mission will blast off from Launch Complex 39A Sunday morning at 2:21 a.m. from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer make up the third crew rotation mission to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program. The Flight Readiness Review for the #Crew3 mission has concluded and teams are proceeding toward a planned liftoff at 2:21am ET on Sunday, Oct. 31! READ: Space Coast federal employees protest vaccine mandatesIf the launch goes off as scheduled, the crew will arrive at the space station just after midnight Monday, Nov. 1.

News 6 space expert Emilee Speck sat down with News 6 anchor Justin Warmoth for "The Weekly on ClickOrlando.com" about launch plans for the next crewed mission.

NASA, under the Commercial Crew program, supplied most of the funding used to develop Crew Dragon over the last six years and conduct hundreds of tests. "Thank you to NASA for their continued support of SpaceX and partnership in achieving this goal," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a statement. Ever since the space shuttle retired in 2011, the U.S. has paid Russia upwards of $80 million per seat to fly astronauts to the International Space Station. The SpaceX certification ends that reliance on Russia, and comes with an expected cost of about $55 million per astronaut. "This certification milestone is an incredible achievement from NASA and SpaceX that highlights the progress we can make working together with commercial industry," NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement.

Nearly a decade ago, NASA began awarding Boeing and SpaceX with funding to build spacecraft that the agency could use to get its astronauts to the International Space Station. Under the Commercial Crew program, NASA awarded SpaceX about $3.1 billion and Boeing about $4.8 billion over the past decade to develop spacecraft to replace the Space Shuttle. Although the program is about three years behind in delivering on the goals it outlined, NASA believes Commercial Crew program has been cost effective. A NASA presentation published on Wednesday outlined just how much the agency expects the Commercial Crew program will save taxpayers. "While not done yet, [Commercial Crew] is poised to save the Agency approximately $20B-$30B, and provide two, independent crew transportation systems," NASA commercial spaceflight director Phil McAlister said in the report.

SpaceX, Boeing show latest progress in Commercial Crew programPublished: January 9, 2020, 5:59 pmThe first rocket at launch pad 39a since last summer has a huge mission this month - the in-flight abort of SpaceX's Crew Dragon.