American Flag Captured by NASA’s First Commercial Crew

By Bob Granath

When NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken lifted off from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center on May 30, 2020, it marked the beginning of a new era of human spaceflight. When they arrived at the International Space Station, they marked the milestone by capturing an American flag in a competition that started almost a decade earlier.

The last time astronauts launched from American soil, they delivered an incentive to the space station for the next crew to launch from the United States. The memento was a small American flag to be returned to Earth by the first mission of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

The final Space Shuttle mission, STS-135, was flown nine years ago. As the crew prepared to depart the station on July 18, 2011, shuttle commander Chris Ferguson presented the space station crew with a small shuttle model and the U.S. flag, originally flown on the first shuttle flight in April 1981.

That flag was captured when Hurley and Behnken arrived at the space station on May 31, 2020 aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon as part of the Demonstration Mission-2, or Demo-2.

“It’s for the thousands of people who made it possible, from the folks at SpaceX, to the folks at NASA, to the folks within the Commercial Crew Program,” Hurley said on retrieving the flag.

After the Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully docked at the International Space Station, Hurley and Behnken joined the Expedition 63 crew of NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Ivan Vagner and Anatoly Ivanishin.

“Chris had it (the flag) right on the hatch where we left it nine years ago,” said Hurley who was pilot on STS-135.

With the flag was a note from Cassidy that said, “Do not forget to take with Crew Dragon.”

“You can bet we will take it with us when we depart back to Earth,” Hurley responded.

“We have talked about this flag before, many times over the last nine years since we left it here on STS-135 and I think the important part is just returning launch capability to the United States to and from the International Space Station,” he said while holding the flag.

Speaking prior to the departure of the Space Shuttle Atlantis in July 2011, STS-135 commander Chris Ferguson pointed out that for pivotal moments in history, monuments are left in place as reminders of past triumphs.

“To celebrate this final shuttle flight and docking to the International Space Station, we brought the best monument we could possibly find, and that’s a Space Shuttle model,” he said.

STS-135 pilot Hurley then presented the model to Mike Fossum of the station’s Expedition 28 crew who placed it next to the node 2 Harmony module’s forward hatch where Space Shuttles docked to the station during 35 flights to support assembly.

“Hundreds of thousands of people have contributed to the shuttle program through the 30 years of flying service and the decade and a half development before that,” Fossum said during the 2011 ceremony. “The Space Shuttle Program has inspired millions and millions more. We’re happy to have this model as one of the greatest testaments to the shuttle’s incredible capability.”

Ferguson explained the history of the U.S. flag left aboard the space station. It flew on the first shuttle mission.

“That flag was handed to me personally just a few days before our launch,” he said. “The crew of STS-135, the final shuttle mission, brought it to the space station.”

STS-1 launched from Kennedy on April 12, 1981, with NASA astronauts John Young and Bob Crippen aboard. After two days in orbit, Columbia landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California, demonstrating the new spacecraft performed as designed.

 “This flag represents not just a symbol of our national pride and honor, but in this particular case, it also represents a goal,” he said. “This flag also will be displayed prominently here by the forward hatch to node 2, to be returned to Earth once again by an astronaut that launches on a U.S. vehicle.”

While numerous launch vehicles now are delivering spacecraft and cargo to orbit and beyond, the Commercial Crew Program was formed to facilitate the development of a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability. The goal is to provide safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the space station and low-Earth orbit.

NASA selected Boeing and SpaceX in September 2014 to build spacecraft and systems designed for human space transportation. Boeing designed the CST-100 Starliner to launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and SpaceX built the Crew Dragon that lifts off atop their Falcon 9 launch vehicle.

By encouraging industry to provide human transportation services to and from low-Earth orbit – a region NASA’s been visiting since 1962 – the nation’s space agency can focus on getting the most out of research and experience aboard America’s investment in the space station. NASA also is focusing on building Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System rocket for deep-space missions beyond low-Earth orbit.

Since the end of the shuttle program, American astronauts have been traveling to the space station aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft which only transports three. Commercial crew systems now have the capability to carry four astronauts, increasing the station’s crew size to seven. Having the additional astronaut will enable the crew to double the amount of time dedicated to scientific research.

During the 2011 ceremony, Ferguson pointed out that when the first commercial crew returns the flag, its cosmic travels will continue.

“When this flag returns to Earth, by astronauts that come up on an American spacecraft, its journey will not end there,” he said, “its journey will continue (with Orion crews) leaving low-Earth orbit once again, perhaps on a lunar destination or perhaps to Mars.”

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