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SpaceX released a video Tuesday chronicling its Demo-2 mission, the first manned flight of its Crew Dragon spacecraft. The mission carried NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to and from the International Space Station, and it went surprisingly smoothly, a result that felt somewhat out of place with this turbulent year on Earth.
“We hope it brings a little sparkle to a pretty tough 2020,” Hurley says at the end of the video.
Never-before-broadcast footage shows Behnken and Hurley driving to the launch site at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. After giving the go-ahead to the spectators, the two astronauts board the Crew Dragon.
“Three … two … one … on, lift off,” says Mission Control. Then SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket ignites.
Once they enter space, Behnken flips backwards as a sequined stuffed dinosaur floats around the capsule. “Tremor the Apatosaurus” was the latest in a long list of stuffed animals astronauts have brought into space as indicators of zero gravity; When the toys begin to float, observers know that the ship has entered microgravity.
The video also shows the moments after the Crew Dragon docked at the space station, when the astronauts encountered the members of Expedition 63. The montage ends with their return to Earth: a small white capsule screams through the atmosphere. , then his parachutes are deployed, reducing it to a gentle splash in the Gulf of Mexico.
You can see the full video below:
SpaceX is learning from Demo-2 to make its next mission more seamless
As the test missions progressed, Demo-2 was remarkably trouble-free.
“The biggest surprise is that this mission was as simple as it is,” said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and chief operating officer, after the Behnken and Hurley landed.
Astronaut Bob Behnken pushes aside a stuffed dinosaur floating around the Crew Dragon’s cockpit as it reaches low Earth orbit on May 30, 2020.
NASA TV
Still, the mission was not without its drawbacks. For example, once the Crew Dragon landed, its thrusters began to emit toxic fumes. Crowds of boats carrying tourists and spectators also ignored orders to keep their distance.
These issues serve as learning opportunities for NASA and SpaceX as they prepare for the next manned mission in their partnership, Crew-1. It is scheduled to launch at 2:40 a.m. ET on October 31.
From top left: Shannon Walker, Soichi Noguchi, Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins pose with SpaceX founder Elon Musk and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.
Jim Bridenstine / NASA
That team includes NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover, as well as Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi. Hopkins is slated to be the mission commander, Glover the pilot, and mission specialists Walker and Noguchi.
The Demo-2 astronauts have already offered some words of wisdom for that group. Hopkins said Hurley warned him about the shocking speed of re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
“His comment on the entry was, ‘It happens fast,'” Hopkins said at a news conference Tuesday. “From the moment the desorbitation sequence begins, the entry sequence begins, until it lands it’s very fast.”
“For me, that means I need to make sure that we as a team are prepared,” Hopkins added. “When things happen fast, you need to anticipate.”
But minor issues and surprises aside, NASA and SpaceX officials are mostly expecting a repeat of Demo-2’s success later this fall.
“It will be a great mission if Crew-1 goes exactly the same way,” Kathy Lueders, NASA’s chief of manned space flight, said during Tuesday’s briefing. “I have a beautiful mission.”
