Nine years after the last space shuttle flight,
NASA and SpaceX are targeting May 27 for the
launch of Demo-2, the first launch of NASA
astronauts from the U.S. since 2011 and the
first crewed launch for Elon Musk’s space
company SpaceX
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced
the launch date on Friday, 17th April.
The historic test flight will herald the end
of America's sole reliance on Russia for basic
space transportation.
This SpaceX crew dragon spaceflight has been
in the making for years, ever since NASA selected
SpaceX to develop new spacecraft to ferry
astronauts to and from the ISS as part of
the Commercial Crew Program.
SpaceX has been transforming its Dragon cargo
capsule —which has been taking supplies
to the ISS for years — into a vehicle that
can carry people.
After six years of development, as well as
various testing successes and failures along
the way, the capsule is ready to finally carry
its first passengers on a flight test.
The mission had been previously announced
to be tracking toward a mid to late-May launch
time frame, but now we know exactly when NASA
and SpaceX hope to launch astronauts for this
inaugural trip to the International Space
Station.
As its name implies, Demo-2 will be the second
time SpaceX launches its Crew Dragon capsule
to the International Space Station.
But, unlike Demo-1 last year, this time two
astronauts will be on board.
The Demo-2 mission will represent a major
milestone for Musk’s SpaceX in its goal
to begin regularly flying people to space.
The company has been launching spacecraft,
satellites and cargo since its founding in
2002 but never humans — professional astronauts
or otherwise.
In this video Engineering Today will discuss
how NASA and SpaceX are gearing up to send
the first astronauts to the International
Space Station from the US in a decade on 27 May?
Let’s get into details.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in
a tweet that the agency aims to "once again
launch American astronauts on American rockets
from American soil!"
Bridenstine announced the long-awaited target
launch date hours after a Russian Soyuz ferry
ship brought two Americans — Jessica Meir
and Drew Morgan — home from the space station
and just eight days after astronaut Chris
Cassidy used the agency's final contracted
Soyuz seat to reach the lab complex.
He will be the lone American aboard the station
until the SpaceX Crew Dragon arrives.
If all goes well, Demo-2 is set to liftoff
at 4:32 p.m. EDT from launchpad 39A at Kennedy
Space Center in Florida.
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley
will be strapped into a SpaceX Crew Dragon
capsule that is sitting on top of a Falcon
9 rocket.
The slender two-stage booster will climb directly
into the plane of the space station's orbit,
releasing the capsule to fly on its own about
10 minutes after liftoff.
From there, Behnken and Hurley will monitor
a mostly autonomous rendezvous, catching up
with their quarry the day after launch.
Following tests of the spacecraft's navigation
and manual control systems, the crew will
move in for docking at the lab's forward port
around 11:30 a.m. on May 28.
This SpaceX Crew Dragon flying this mission
is designed to stay on orbit for around 110
days, but its actual length of stay will be
decided by how ready the commercial crew mission
to follow is at the time of launch.
That Crew Dragon, which is the fully operational
version, is designed for stays of at least
210 days, and the crew complement of four
astronauts.
SpaceX Crew Dragon from Demo-2 will perform
an automated undocking from the ISS with Behnken
and Hurley on board when it is ready to leave,
and then they’ll re-enter Earth’s atmosphere
and have a controlled splashdown landing in
the Atlantic Ocean, where a SpaceX ship will
pick them up and bring them back to Florida.
It will be the first astronaut splashdown
since the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975.
Before the coronavirus pandemic swept across
the country, NASA managers were expecting
huge crowds to gather along Florida's Space
Coast for launch, along with hundreds of journalists
at the Kennedy Space Center.
It's not yet clear how that will play out
given social distancing and other safety protocols.
Though Bridenstine noted that NASA and SpaceX
are taking extra measures to protect the astronauts
and other workers given the coronavirus crisis.
On April 1st, Florida Government Ron DeSantis
issued a stay-at-home order for residents
in the state to help combat the spread of
COVID-19.
Meanwhile, NASA has issued mandatory telework
policies at all of its centers, with exceptions
for essential personnel.
However, the space agency says it is monitoring
the pandemic as it prepares for the launch.
The Florida space center is currently closed
to all but essential personnel as part of
NASA's COVID-19 response framework.
Bridenstine said in a recent interview- the
managers, engineers and technicians working
to ready the Crew Dragon and its Falcon 9
rocket for flight are taking all possible
precautions.
About 350 NASA employees work for the Commercial
Crew program, using personal protective equipment
when needed and are working in rotations.
The agency is “making sure that we’re
practicing all of our social distancing measures,”
Bridenstine said.
“We’re using shifts of workers in a way
that we can enable more distancing.”
But even "If people don't feel safe, they
don't have to work on the mission," he said.
"I've been very clear with all of the agency
leaders that nobody should feel pressure to
do work if they don't feel safe."
If a positive case of coronavirus is confirmed
among the launch team, "depending on where
it is and how the person is doing the work,
it may or may not impact the mission," Bridenstine
said.
"What we're trying to do is (make sure) that
if there is a case, that we can quickly identify
the people that that person was in contact
with, and do the tracing and get all the people
that were involved off the mission and replaced
with other people."
"If there's an outbreak, yeah, it will affect
the date," he said.
"But we're doing everything we can to minimize
that eventuality."
NASA also said its astronaut trainers “are
closely adhering to CDC recommendations on
infection control,” with a “limited”
number of employees coming in contact with
Behnken and Hurley.
“We always quarantine all of the astronauts
before they go to the International Space
Station,” Bridenstine said.
“Now we’re taking even more precautions.”
Bridenstine earlier this month explained why
Demo-2 has been a priority for the agency.
“We need access to the International Space
Station from the United States of America.
Commercial Crew is the program that’s going
to make that happen.
It’s essential for our country to have that
capability,” he said.
This final test will validate each aspect
of the Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 launch system,
including the pad from which the rocket takes
off, the operational facilities on the ground,
orbital systems and astronaut procedures.
Pending successful completion of all those
elements, Crew Dragon should be set for full
operational certification, after which time
it can begin regularly scheduled service of
delivering astronauts to and from the ISS.
But, the coronavirus is a major complication
in an already complicated set of interlocking
initiatives aimed at insuring the uninterrupted
presence of U.S. astronauts aboard the International
Space Station.
As a hedge against possible downstream problems
or delays in the agency's commercial crew
program, NASA is negotiating with Roscosmos,
the Russian space agency, for a seat aboard
the October Soyuz flight and another next
spring.
But if SpaceX Crew Dragon test flight goes
well, NASA and SpaceX are expected to launch
a second Crew Dragon Crew-1 later this year.
Crew-1 mission, which the agency considers
to be Crew Dragon’s “first operational”
flight.
will mark the official start of SpaceX flying
astronauts on regular missions to the ISS.
NASA is expected to launch Crew-1 carrying
a crew of four: Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker,
Victor Glover and Japanese astronaut Soichi
Noguchi.
They would presumably remain aboard the space
station for five to six months before returning
to Earth.
The commercial crew program was launched following
a 2004 decision by the Bush administration
to complete the space station and retire the
space shuttle by the end of the decade.
After a series of preliminary studies, a NASA-funded
competition began in 2010 and on Sept. 16,
2014, the agency announced that Boeing and
SpaceX would share $6.8 billion to develop
independent space taxis, the first new U.S.
crewed spacecraft since the 1970s.
NASA has awarded SpaceX more than $3.1 billion
under the Commercial Crew program to fund
development of the capsule.
SpaceX company is also contributing hundreds
of millions of dollars of its own funds when
needed.
Boeing is also developing its Starliner spacecraft
to compete for contracts, with the company
having received more than $4.8 billion in
awards since Commercial Crew began.
Boeing will rely on a United Launch Alliance
Atlas 5 rocket for the trip to orbit.
The CST-100 Starliner capsule will land in
the western United States.
