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Human space flight will begin again on U.S. soil with next month’s takeoff from NASA’s Demo-2 mission, which will launch a SpaceX Crew Dragon boats from Florida Kennedy Space Center. NASA has scheduled three press conferences for Friday, May 1, to review how the entire mission will proceed, and space nerds can watch every minute here.
The preview is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. PT with NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell and NASA program managers giving an overview of the mission, which will see astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley perform the first manned flight of a SpaceX vehicle.
A second press conference, scheduled for 9:30 a.m. PT will feature NASA and SpaceX program managers who will go into more detail about the mission, and the final event, scheduled for 11 a.m.PT, will allow reporters to ask questions of Behnken and Hurley.
NASA astronauts Robert Behnken, left, and Douglas Hurley.
SpaceX
Demo-2 is part of NASA Commercial Crew Program, intended to return astronaut launches to the US USA with the help of private space companies. Since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011, the only way to access the International Space Station has been aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. NASA selected the Space Crew Dragon and Boeing Starliner for the program; Until now only the Crew Dragon has been certified to transport astronauts.
Although Demo-2 is technically a test mission for Crew Dragon, once it takes the two astronauts to the International Space Station, they will join the ISS crew. The pair will orbit for an undetermined period of time before returning the Dragon to Earth.
We’ll have more coverage of Friday’s events as they happen, but you can see them live for yourself by returning to this page and streaming our live stream above.
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