A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching America’s first crew back to space from US soil on the Crew Dragon May 30, 2020 from Kennedy Space Center pad 39A on the Demo-2 flight test to and from the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Photo: Mike Killian / AmericaSpace.com
The wait is over. After nine long years, an agonizing 3,236 days, a hiatus in America’s capacity to launch its own astronauts, aboard its own spacecraft, atop its own rockets, and from its own soil, came to a triumphant end at 3:22:45 p.m. EDT Saturday, 30 May, when the Demo-2 Crew Dragon finally took flight from historic Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.
Carrying the dreams of a nation, to say nothing of the men and women who vacated KSC before them, NASA veterans Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken became the first humans to ride a Falcon 9 into space. Within nine minutes, Crew Dragon—which Hurley later named “Endeavour”—had achieved a smooth orbit, preparatory to Sunday’s planned docking with the International Space Station (ISS).
Startling the birds, Discovery spears from Pad 39B on 13 July 1995. Six weeks earlier, the antics of a pesky Northern Flicker woodpecker had caused an extensive launch delay for STS-70 and extensive embarrassment for NASA. Photo Credit: NASA
But of all the lethal things which bedeviled the shuttles over those three decades, none could possibly be as strange as the one which hit fleet leader Discovery 25 years ago. In fact, when he learned that a woodpecker had just scrubbed his mission, veteran astronaut Don Thomas thought someone was playing a prank on him. They couldn’t be serious. Could they?
Demo-2 astronauts Doug Hurley (foreground) and Bob Behnken ran through a full-up Launch Day, but the Florida weather ultimately thwarted Wednesday’s launch attempt. Photo Credit: NASA/SpaceX
It’s been more than 3,000 days—almost nine full years—since a human-capable orbiting spaceship built and launched in the United States last swept back to Earth to return a crew of Americans home safely to their families. The landing of Atlantis on 21 July 2011 to wrap up STS-135, the final voyage of the Space Shuttle Program, marked the end of an era, but few observers seriously expected that almost a decade would pass before a replacement vehicle would again return U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).
The long wait was hoped to end at 4:33 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, 27 May, when Demo-2 astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken were due to roar aloft from historic Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, to take SpaceX’s Crew Dragon for an orbital spin and potentially a few months at the sprawling multi-national complex. But running through an exceptionally smooth Launch Day, the attempt was scrubbed at T-16 minutes as the intractable Florida weather refused to co-operate. The next attempt is scheduled for 3:22 p.m. EDT Saturday, 30 May.
Bob Behnken (left) previously served as chief of NASA’s astronaut corps, whilst Doug Hurley piloted the final Space Shuttle mission, STS-135. Photo Credit: Mike Killian / AmericaSpace.com
Flying atop a Falcon 9 booster, theirs will be the first mission by U.S. astronauts, aboard a U.S. spacecraft and from U.S. soil since the end of the shuttle program in July 2011, as well as being the first-ever time that humans will have traveled into low-Earth orbit in a wholly commercial vehicle.
Doug Hurley (foreground) will serve as mission commander for the Demo-2 flight, with Bob Behnken (background) as joint operations commander. Photo Credit: SpaceX
For the first time in nearly nine years, a Prime Crew is in the final days of waiting at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, ahead of their scheduled liftoff from historic Pad 39A at 4:33 p.m. EDT Wednesday, 27 May. Retired Marine Corps Col. Doug Hurley, who piloted the final voyage of the shuttle program, and Air Force Col. Bob Behnken, a former chief of NASA’s astronaut corps, will fly SpaceX’s Crew Dragon for the long-awaited Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
The Launch Readiness Review (LRR) wrapped up today, clearing a final significant milestone before Wednesday’s liftoff. “We’re burning down the final paper. All the teams are a go, and we’re continuing to progress toward our mission,” said Kathy Lueders, manager, NASA Commercial Crew Program. “I’m very proud of the team. We are continuing to be vigilant and careful, and make sure we do this right.”
Doug Hurley (left), mission commander of Demo-2, piloted the final Space Shuttle flight, whilst Bob Behnken, joint operations commander, is a veteran spacewalker and former chief of NASA’s astronaut corps. Photo Credit: NASA
Alan Shepard, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, Walt Cunningham, Bob Crippen and John Young; just a handful of many heroes in the annals of U.S. human spaceflight over almost six decades. But these seven men occupy a unique niche in that they were first to take a brand-new spacecraft, ride it from the launch pad to low-Earth orbit and check it out for even more complex missions ahead. Shepard became America’s first man in space when he took a 15-minute suborbital “hop” aboard the Freedom 7 Mercury capsule in May 1961; Grissom and Young piloted Gemini 3 in March 1965; Schirra, Eisele and Cunningham flew Apollo 7 in October 1968; and Young and Crippen undertook arguably the most dangerous experimental test flight in history when they buckled into Columbia for the shuttle’s first-ever launch off the planet in April 1981.
Artist’s conception of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (WFIRST). Image Credit: NASA
NASA’s upcoming next-generation space telescope, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), now has a brand new name: the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (or just the Roman Space Telescope for short). It is named in honor of Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer.
From left, Demo-2 crew members Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley on May 20, 2020, at the Launch and Landing Facility runway following their arrival to the Florida spaceport. With Demo-2 they will become the first U.S. astronauts to launch aboard a U.S. spacecraft, atop a U.S. rocket, and from U.S. soil, since the end of the Space Shuttle Program in July 2011. Photo Credit: NASA
Jim Voss manipulates the Russian-built Strela (“Arrow”) cargo crane during STS-101. Photo Credit: NASA
As the United States readies itself for the launch of an entirely new space vehicle next week—the long-awaited voyage of the Demo-2 Crew Dragon, carrying NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken—today also marks 20 years since a (virtually) brand-new spacecraft roared aloft on a mission to kickstart the assembly the International Space Station (ISS) and prepare it for its first human visitors. By 19 May 2000, shuttle Atlantis had been on the ground for more than two years, undergoing over a hundred modifications, including the installation of the Multifunction Electronic Display System (MEDS) to upgrade her vintage 1970s-era flight deck instrumentation with a more modern flat-panel “glass cockpit”. It was no accident, then, that as this good-as-new ship rose from Earth at 6:11 a.m. EDT for her 21st mission, she was heralded as “a Space Shuttle for the 21st century”.
