NASA, SpaceX Resume Launching Astronauts from American Soil

May 13, 2020

By Bob Granath

The SpaceX Crew Dragon trunk was secured to the spacecraft on April 30, 2020, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The work is in preparation for the Demo-2 launch to the International Space Station for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. — *The SpaceX Crew Dragon trunk was secured to the spacecraft on April 30, 2020, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Photo credit: SpaceX*

NASA has scheduled the first piloted flight launched by the United States since the final Space Shuttle, STS-135, flew in July 2011. The SpaceX Demonstration Mission-2, or Demo-2, returns a human space flight capability to American soil for the first time in nine years.

Demo-2 is part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) designed to end the nation’s reliance on Russia to transport crews to the International Space Station and re-establish an American human launch capability. These flights to the space station also will increase the use of the orbiting laboratory’s unique research environment and provide additional research opportunities for discoveries.

After a postponement due to thunderstorms on May 27, liftoff now is set for 3:22 p.m. EDT, on May 30, 2020, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. This historic launch pad first was used for the Apollo Saturn V rockets during America’s Moon landing program between 1967 and 1972, and, following modifications, supported the Space Shuttle from 1981 to 2011. In 2014, NASA signed a property agreement with SpaceX for their use and operation of the complex for launching Falcon 9 rockets and the much larger Falcon Heavy.

Demo-2 Crew

The Demo-2 crew includes a pair of NASA astronauts, each a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions.

*NASA astronauts Bob Behnken, left, and Doug Hurley pose in front of a mockup of the SpaceX Crew dragon spacecraft at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Photo Credit: NASA/Johnson Space Center*

Spacecraft Commander is Doug Hurley. He was born in Endicott, New York, but considers Apalachin, New York, as his hometown. Hurley earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Tulane University in 1988. He was a test pilot and colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps before becoming an NASA astronaut in 2000. He piloted the Space Shuttle Endeavor for STS-127 in 2009 and Atlantis during STS-135, the final shuttle mission in 2011.

Bob Behnken will serve as joint operations commander for Demo-2. He is a native of St. Ann, Missouri. In 1997, he earned a doctorate in engineering from the California Institute of Technology. He is a colonel in the U.S. Air Force and was a flight test engineer before being selected as an astronaut in the same group with Hurley. Behnken flew as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour for both STS-123 in 2008 and the STS-130 flight in 2010. During those missions, he performed six spacewalks totaling more than 37 hours.

Throughout NASA’s history, the agency has worked with industry and academia to explore and utilize the space frontier. Contractors built rockets, satellites and spacecraft. Colleges and universities worked with NASA scientists and engineers to develop technology to support investigations leading to groundbreaking discoveries.

*The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will launch the Crew Dragon spacecraft is processed in the company’s facility at the foot of Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Photo credit: SpaceX*

As the 30-year Space Shuttle Program was drawing to a close, NASA began plans for what now is known as the Artemis Program, the agency’s effort to explore the Moon and Mars. With industry developing a variety of new launch systems to ferry astronauts and supplies to the space station, the agency can focus on reaching beyond Earth.

A little more than two years after the final Space Shuttle flight, SpaceX’s Dragon and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft began successfully launching atop their companies’ Falcon 9 and Antares rockets, respectively, to resupply the space station. The companies developed the rockets and spacecraft through public-private partnerships under the agency’s Commercial Resupply Services contracts.

Commercial Crew Program

*The crew access arm connects the Launch Complex 39A launch tower to the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft atop the company’s Falcon 9 rocket. Photo credit: SpaceX*

In NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, industry partners developed a new generation of spacecraft and launch systems capable of ferrying crews to low-Earth orbit. CCP is facilitating the development of a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the space station and other destinations in orbit.

In September 2014, NASA announced the selection of Boeing to build their CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX the Crew Dragon to transport crews to the space station. The Starliner will launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and the SpaceX Falcon 9 will power the Crew Dragon to space.

The first flight test of the SpaceX Crew Dragon was the unpiloted Demo-1, launched March 2, 2019, later docking with the International Space Station. After six days in orbit, the capsule returned to Earth splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast.

Click here to read more about the inaugural launch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon.

Crew Dragon

The SpaceX Crew Dragon is an autonomous spacecraft designed to deliver a mix of crew and cargo to low-Earth orbit. The capsule is 27 feet high and 13 feet in diameter. For NASA trips to the International Space Station, the Crew Dragon will carry from four to seven NASA-sponsored crewmembers and return crews with about 6,600 pounds of time-critical scientific research experiments and equipment.

The capsule’s trunk is an integral element of the spacecraft, containing solar panels, heat-removal radiators, and fins to provide aerodynamic stability in the unlikely event of an emergency abort. The previous Cargo Dragon’s deployable solar arrays have been eliminated and now are built into the trunk itself. This increases volume space, reduces the number of mechanisms on the vehicle and further increases reliability.

The Crew Dragon will be launched by the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle, which the company began flying in 2010. The rocket is 229 feet tall and is 12 feet in diameter. The first stage has nine engines generating 1,710,000 pounds of thrust. The second stage has one engine with 210,000 pounds of thrust. Propellant for both stages are RP-1, highly refined kerosene, and liquid oxygen. Like the Crew Dragon spacecraft, the first stage of the rocket is reusable. The Falcon 9 first stage returns to either a landing pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station or a SpaceX ship off shore named, Of Course I Still Love You.

At minimum, the Demo-2 crew will remain in orbit about a month. The maximum stay would be no more than 119 days, due to the potential degradation of the Dragon spacecraft’s solar panels. Like Demo-1, the Crew Dragon will return to Earth splashing down off Florida’s Atlantic coast.

Prepare to Launch America

Check out this short video on the upcoming SpaceX Demonstration Mission-2.

Before Apollo astronauts launched to the Moon, they walked out of these doors of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The doors are about be used again when agency astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken depart the Florida spaceport’s crew quarters for the trip to Launch Complex 39A to board their Crew Dragon for the SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station. Prepare to #LaunchAmerica on May 27, 2020.

Video courtesy of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center