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NASA astronauts Robert “Bob” Behnken and Douglas “Doug” Hurley are excited and ready to launch into space this month.
Veteran astronauts are slated to launch aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicle from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center as part of the Demo-2 (DM-2) mission on May 27. This will be the first manned launch in the US. USA Since NASA’s space shuttle program ended in 2011. If all goes as planned, on May 28 the mission will arrive at the International Space Station, where it will dock and astronauts will spend up to 3 months (the exact duration of their mission. not yet determined).
Today (May 1), Behnken, the joint operations commander of DM-2, and Hurley, the mission’s spacecraft commander, spoke to the media ahead of this historic launch and shared that they are both excited to bring Crew Dragon at his inauguration manned flight
Related: How SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule works (infographic)
“I am really excited about this mission by NASA and SpaceX to bring human space flight back to the Florida coast,” said Behnken during the press conference. Then he went to the camera and said “Hello to my son Theodore, hello Theo!” Behnken said, “On my first flight I did not have a young child, I did not have a child, so I am very excited to share the mission with him.”
“I am happy to be a part of this whole great program,” said Hurley. Hurley and Behnken will launch from Platform 39A at KSC, where they once took off aboard the ferries. “I think overall,” added Hurley, “it is time to launch a US rocket from the Florida coast to the International Space Station and I am certainly honored to be a part of it.”
This flight will not only be the first manned launch in the US. USA In nearly a decade, it will also be the first manned launch in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and a major development in the history of commercial spaceflight and spaceflight in general. But the astronauts objected. “From a historical perspective, we will let someone else talk about it when we return,” Hurley said.
Hurley added that while they are mission focused, “I think Bob and I are very honored to be in this position.”
A pandemic launch
The launch of DM-2 takes place as most of the world isolates itself to delay the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by a new coronavirus.
This means that while a historic manned launch like this could be expected to draw huge crowds during “normal times,” NASA hopes this launch will not. Recently, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced that he will not only be closing the Kennedy Space Center, but is also urging people to stay home and watch the launch remotely and safely.
Hurley called the astronauts’ family and friends unable to attend the launch “disappointing,” but added that “it is obviously the right thing to do in today’s environment … we want everyone to be safe.”
Hurley and Behnken added that while the quarantine they live in will become increasingly restrictive as they get closer to the release date, for now they have been able to quarantine their families.
Security details
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule is unique in several ways, including the amount of automation it incorporates. However, the crew on this flight will test the ship’s manual capabilities, which astronauts who fly Crew Dragon capsules in the future will be able to access if they need it for security reasons or to complete specific mission objectives.
“The Dragon spacecraft has many capabilities so that we can manually intervene,” Behnken told Space.com during the press conference. “We have a number of manual capabilities that allow us to really protect ourselves if automation has any kind of problem.”
Behnken added that Hurley “should have the opportunity a couple of times during the flight to manually fly the vehicle with those interfaces.”
That test is a crucial security measure for future flights. “Specifically, as part of this test flight, designed at some point in the pre-flight phase, as well as near the space station so that we can test the vehicle’s actual manual flight capability and verify that it is handled in the manner that we look forward to, “Hurley said. “It is a prudent part of our flight test, just like anything else, in case a future crew occurs that needs to take over manually and fly the spacecraft.”
Both Hurley and Behnken flew with NASA’s space shuttle program. Although the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule is very different from the shuttle, both astronauts are used to flying a wide variety of vehicles.
Still, this will be Crew Dragon’s first manned flight, so “statistics will tell you it’s more risky,” Hurley said. However, he added that not only capsule designs are generally safer than winged designs like Shuttle, “I trust SpaceX and NASA teams.”
Despite the capsule and rocket having undergone countless hours of testing, the astronauts themselves have completed equivalent training regimes. While the astronauts have been working through simulations, they have also been collaborating intensively with NASA and SpaceX to ensure that the design makes sense and is the safest and most effective way to complete their mission of reaching the space station.
Hurley noted that one of the biggest safety differences between the shuttle and the Crew Dragon is that the Crew Dragon has abort capabilities from the launch pad to orbit. This is different than the shuttle, “where there were what we call black zones,” Hurley said of sections of the flight where no matter what you did, if things went really wrong “you probably wouldn’t survive an abortion.”
Follow Chelsea Gohd on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom and in Facebook.
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