On Saturday, SpaceX is expected to launch a historic flight to and from the International Space Station that will revolutionize space exploration, following an initial delay due to weather concerns. “It’s hugely exciting,” Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian astronaut to walk on space, said of the launch — but he also said it comes with “enormous” liabilities.
On any given day, there are a variety of medical and safety risks that come with flying people into space, but this year NASA also had to protect their astronauts from the threat of COVID-19.
The SpaceX Demo-2 mission represents a milestone for the U.S., which has not returned to space since the final flight of the Atlantis closed out the space shuttle program in 2011.