NASA prepares to launch humans again
SpaceX mission is first with astronauts from U.S. since 2011
The last space shuttle crew in 2011 left an American flag on the International Space Station as a token to be collected when the next crew launched on a rocket from U.S. soil.
It took longer than expected — and will have less swagger as the COVID-19 pandemic prevents space enthusiasts from gathering along the Florida coast — but the time has come to collect that flag as NASA and SpaceX, headed by CEO Elon Musk, prepare to launch astronauts at 3:32 p.m. CST on May 27.
“Getting a chance again to see human spaceflight in our own backyard, if you will, is pretty exciting to be a part of,” astronaut Bob Behnken, who completed two space shuttle flights and will be on this month’s launch, said during a news conference Friday.
Later this month, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft will lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Behnken and Doug Hurley are expected to travel for less than 24 hours before docking with the International Space Station. Then they will stay on the station for 30 to 119 days, monitoring the space
craft’s performance and helping the space station’s crew with maintenance and experiments, before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX will scoop them out of the water in less than one hour.
This Demo-2 mission is the final major test before SpaceX receives NASA certification for more regular trips, and it’s important in many ways. It’s the first time a U.S. company will own and operate a vehicle taking NASA astronauts into space, and it’s just the fifth time astronauts will launch on a newly built U.S. vehicle: Mercury in 1961, Gemini in 1965, Apollo in 1968, the Columbia space shuttle in 1981 and now Crew Dragon in 2020.
SpaceX also will help NASA maintain its 20-year streak of having astronauts living and conducting research on the space station (the agency has been purchasing seats on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, paying nearly $86 million per seat for its most recent missions), and it furthers the government agency’s efforts to commercialize low-Earth orbit, the area of space immediately surrounding the Earth.
“NASA has an ability to be a customer,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “One customer of many customers in a very robust commercial marketplace in lowEarth orbit. But we also want to have numerous providers that are competing against each other on cost and innovation.”
Competition, as well as redundancy, is why NASA has been working with both SpaceX and Boeing through its Commercial Crew Program. SpaceX is on track to launch people first, though it will be under abnormal conditions.
Astronauts typically go into quarantine two weeks before launch, but COVID-19 has prompted NASA and SpaceX to take extra precautions. This includes cleaning training facilities more frequently and limiting much of the astronauts’ interactions to essential personnel wearing gloves and masks. Bridenstine is also asking people to watch the launch from home.
“Having large crowds of hundreds of thousands of people at the Kennedy Space Center, now is not the time for that,” Bridenstine said. “We don’t want an outbreak. We need a spectacular moment that all of America can see and all of the world can see.”
Fortunately, spectacular has become a SpaceX trademark, particularly after it launched a cherryred Tesla Roadster into space on its Falcon Heavy rocket in 2018. SpaceX has delivered cargo to the International Space Station on 21 missions, but launching people is an ambition the company has worked toward since it was founded in 2002. And as Demo-2 drew closer, an anonymous suggestion box filled with recommendations for how the company could remain cognizant of the mission’s human cargo, such as putting pictures of Behnken and Hurley on work orders.
The team remains busy in the days leading up to the launch. On Friday, for instance, SpaceX conducted the 27th and final test of Crew Dragon’s upgraded Mark 3 parachutes.
“I’ll feel more relief when they get to the station, and then obviously I will start sleeping again when they are back safely on the planet. As far as my team goes, they don’t need to be reminded about the criticality of the work that every person is doing for this mission. They remind themselves, and they are helpfully reminding me,” said SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell.