Photo: SpaceX
Less than a week is left before crewed space launches will return to American soil. On May 27, a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule will lift off on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, carrying two astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).
The moment is historic for a number of reasons. First, it will be the first crewed mission carried out with a private space capsule of the Commercial Crew Program. Second, it will be the first time Americans will take off from American soil, onboard an American spacecraft, since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011.
The two people flying the Dragon are joint operations commander Robert Behnken and spacecraft commander Douglas Hurley. Their mission is called Demo-2, and it will be conducted with the help of a type of capsule that has already flown solo to the ISS.
As preparations are entering the final stages at Cape Canaveral, the spacecraft and its carrier rocket rolled out to the launch pad on May 21.
Once in the air, the crew will use the opportunity to test the ship, including by controlling it manually at various points in the mission or whenever the need arises, trying to prove the SpaceX build is viable for the task at hand.
“The spacecraft is designed to do this autonomously but astronauts aboard the spacecraft and the station will be diligently monitoring approach and docking and can take control of the spacecraft if necessary,” NASA says in a statement,
The two astronauts will launch and subsequently dock with the ISS in orbit, where they will spend anywhere between one and four months. Then comes the trip back down, culminating with splashdown and recovery from the middle of the ocean.
If all goes well, NASA will then validate the Crew Dragon “for operational, long-duration missions to the space station” ending the nation’s dependence on Russian spacecraft.
The two people flying the Dragon are joint operations commander Robert Behnken and spacecraft commander Douglas Hurley. Their mission is called Demo-2, and it will be conducted with the help of a type of capsule that has already flown solo to the ISS.
As preparations are entering the final stages at Cape Canaveral, the spacecraft and its carrier rocket rolled out to the launch pad on May 21.
Once in the air, the crew will use the opportunity to test the ship, including by controlling it manually at various points in the mission or whenever the need arises, trying to prove the SpaceX build is viable for the task at hand.
“The spacecraft is designed to do this autonomously but astronauts aboard the spacecraft and the station will be diligently monitoring approach and docking and can take control of the spacecraft if necessary,” NASA says in a statement,
The two astronauts will launch and subsequently dock with the ISS in orbit, where they will spend anywhere between one and four months. Then comes the trip back down, culminating with splashdown and recovery from the middle of the ocean.
If all goes well, NASA will then validate the Crew Dragon “for operational, long-duration missions to the space station” ending the nation’s dependence on Russian spacecraft.
Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon are vertical on the launch pad pic.twitter.com/2nw9h0jxde
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 21, 2020
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