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SpaceX’s first Crew Dragon manned spacecraft will take off at 4:32 p.m. EDT May 27, from the famous launch complex 39A of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It will be the first American human space flight on an American rocket from American soil to the International Space Station since July 2011, when the US space agency stopped its space shuttle program, making the United States dependent on Russian technology.
Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley will be the first American astronauts to go into orbit in SpaceX’s next-generation human spacecraft. Both were selected for their extensive test pilot and flight experience, including various missions on the space shuttle. Behnken will be responsible for activities such as Encounter, Docking, and Undocking, as well as Demo-2 activities when the spacecraft is docked at the space station. And Hurley will be responsible for the launch, landing, and recovery.
After successfully docking, Behnken and Hurley will conduct tests on the Crew Dragon in addition to conducting investigations and other tasks with the space station crew. Although the Crew Dragon operational ship is able to remain in orbit for at least 210 days, the duration of the specific mission will be determined once at a station based on the preparation for the upcoming launch of the commercial crew.
Upon completion of the mission, Crew Dragon will return to Earth and dive off the Atlantic coast of Florida, where the capsule and two astronauts will be recovered by SpaceX’s Go Navigator recovery ship and returned to Cape Canaveral.
This project is part of the Commercial Crew program that NASA has established with SpaceX and Boeing. A multi-million dollar contract has been signed with the two companies.
SpaceX has surpassed Boeing by building a more successful and operational capsule more quickly. In fact, Boeing was unable to convince with an empty test flight of its Starliner capsule, which revealed several dangerous flaws in the communication software. By contrast, the Crew Dragon capsule had passed the test in 2019, carrying a “Rosie the Astronaut” dummy, which arrived to dock at the International Space Station. This reusable ship can be used to send crews of up to 4 people to the station.
