Since the end of Space Shuttle program in 2011, American astronauts bound for the International Space Station (ISS) have been hitching a ride with the Russians on Soyuz space capsules. That is about to change.
All eyes are now on the historic Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida as SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft sits atop a Falcon 9 rocket, ready for liftoff scheduled today at 4:33 p.m. EDT.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has selected astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley, both veterans of the Space Shuttle program to pilot this mission called Demo-2, the final test flight of the Crew Dragon capsule.
SpaceX, the highly successful space launch firm built by tech mogul Elon Musk 18 years ago, is poised to become the first privately owned company in the world to launch astronauts into orbit for a rendezvous with the ISS.
Mission Essential
This momentous launch is unfolding against the backdrop of the COVID-19 global pandemic. In spite of far-reaching stay-at-home orders that were in place across the United States which saw NASA facilities being locked down, the agency had classified SpaceX Demo-2 as “mission essential,” which meant the mission could go forward in the face of the current health crisis.
The agency believes this historic space flight from American soil—a spectacle that was noticeably absent for almost a decade—would give the nation the much needed morale boost in these troubled times.
“It’s going to uplift America,” declared NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in an interview with CNBC.
It is standard procedure to quarantine astronauts in the final weeks prior to a space mission. On account of the COVID-19 pandemic, NASA has carried out stricter measures to keep astronauts and NASA employees safe.
Two-Man Flight
The SpaceX and NASA teams have conducted the required mission simulations and crew training for months prior to launch.
Hurley, 53, is the spacecraft commander for this mission, responsible for launch, landing and recovery. Interestingly, Hurley is the same man who piloted the orbiter Atlantis on the last Space Shuttle mission, which took place in July 2011.
Behnken, 49, is the joint operations commander for Demo-2. He will be responsible for capsule maneuvers, such as the rendezvous and docking with the ISS, and the undocking from the orbiting laboratory.
Modern Spacecraft
The duo of Behnken and Hurley will blast off to low-Earth orbit aboard the state of the art Crew Dragon capsule sitting on top of the powerful Falcon 9 rocket. This sleek spacecraft is completely autonomous, but pilots will have manual override ability using touchscreen computers.
In case of an emergency event during launch, the Crew Dragon has the capability to instantly extricate itself from the Falcon 9 rocket in mid-air using its four side-mounted thruster pods, each equipped with two SuperDraco engines. It will then deploy parachutes and splash down in the Atlantic. SpaceX has shown that the Crew Dragon has a reliable integrated launch escape system when it aced the in-flight abort test for its space capsule in January.
The Crew Dragon is the human transportation variant of the Dragon cargo spacecraft which has been ferrying supplies to the ISS since 2012. NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.6 billion contract in 2014 to complete the development of Crew Dragon and carry out six crewed flights to and from the ISS. This is part of the Commercial Crew Program implemented by NASA following the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.
Pivotal Flight
As the name of this much-anticipated mission suggests, it is still a test flight for the Crew Dragon spacecraft. But a lot is riding on the success of Demo-2. Not only will it make SpaceX the go-to spaceflight company for ferrying American astronauts to the orbiting science platform, it will also restore this nation’s ability to fly its own astronauts into space which we lost for quite some time.
Story Update:
NASA and SpaceX announced the scrubbing of the May 27 launch attempt about 17 minutes prior to liftoff after unfavorable weather conditions at scheduled launch time were detected.
The launch of the Crew Dragon happened on the first backup launch schedule of 3:22 p.m. EDT the following Saturday, May 30.
