He was selected as an astronaut in 2000 has previously flown in two space shuttle missions in 20. Anne, Missouri, Behnken will serve as the joint operations commander for the mission. They will perform tests on Crew Dragon in addition to conducting research and other tasks with the space station crew.”īorn in St. The Demo-2 mission, which will lift off from the Launch Complex 39A launch site at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, will be manned by veteran astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley who “will be welcomed aboard and will become members of the Expedition 63 crew. “This also will be the first time NASA astronauts will test the spacecraft systems in orbit.” “As the final flight test for SpaceX, this mission will validate the company’s crew transportation system, including the launch pad, rocket, spacecraft, and operational capabilities,” NASA explained in a mission briefing. It’ll be the company’s and the Commercial Crew Program’s biggest test to date. Space X has been developing its Crew Dragon spacecraft for the last six years and the Falcon 9 rocket, the launch vehicle for the mission, since 2005.ĭemo-2 will mark the first time SpaceX has sent a crewed mission into space. The launch is a pivotal milestone for both the American space agency and SpaceX as it’ll mark a new phase in NASA‘s Commercial Crew Program, the federally-funded initiative that tasked SpaceX and Boeing to develop new spacecraft that can transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station. You can watch the liftoff live right here. Nine years later, the Elon Musk-founded private aerospace company SpaceX will help NASA send American astronauts to space once again when the Demo-2 Crew Dragon launches on Saturday, May 30 at 3:22 pm ET. It’s been almost a decade since NASA shut down its Space Shuttle program in 2011, bringing an era of manned space missions to an end for the agency.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |