Month: May 2020

NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 crew members Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley have arrived at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A.

Launch of Demo-2 mission will kick off a new chapter for this storied launch complex. This was the launch site for 11 Apollo/Saturn V missions, including Apollo 11, which carried the first astronauts to land on the Moon. The pad also was the launch site for 82 space shuttle missions, including STS-1, the first shuttle launch; the STS-125 final servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope; STS-135, the final shuttle mission; and many more throughout the program’s 30-year span.

After the space shuttle was retired in 2011, NASA began the process to transform Kennedy Space Center from a historically government-only launch facility into a multi-user spaceport for both government and commercial use. On April 14, 2014, the agency signed a property agreement with SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, for use of the launch site for the next 20 years. SpaceX upgraded and modified the launch pad to support its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. The company also built a horizontal processing hangar at the base of the pad to perform final vehicle integration prior to flight.

Because of NASA’s partnership with SpaceX within the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, Launch Complex 39A will once again be the site of crewed missions to the space station.

NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley are on their way to Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39A after departing the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building across the spaceport.

Their ride to the pad is a white, customized Tesla Model X outfitted with cooling air for the crew’s suits. Their vehicle – which bears a license plate meaning “ISS Bound” – is traveling in the middle of a convoy including support team members and security personnel.

At the launch site, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft are ready for the crew’s arrival.

Here they come! NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 crew members Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley just stepped out of Kennedy Space Center’s Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, or “O&C,” where their ride to Launch Complex 39A – a customized, falcon-wing Tesla Model X – awaits.

The astronauts were greeted by cheers, shouts, waves and “virtual” hugs from their wives, children, friends and colleagues.

The countdown continues to go well for today’s planned 3:22 p.m. EDT launch of NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 flight test to the International Space Station. At Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is powered on and the launch team is pressurizing gaseous storage vessels onboard. Meanwhile, the Crew Dragon spacecraft is being prepared for NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken to board later in the countdown. Weather remains the big question for today; the chance of favorable conditions at launch time remains 50%.

We’re standing by to see the crew leave the suit room in Kennedy’s Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building and wave to their family, friends and support team members before the ride to the launch pad.

NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission will be the company’s first flight carrying a crew, but it’s the second flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station.

In March 2019, the SpaceX Demo-1 mission was the spacecraft’s first flight test. During that uncrewed mission, the fully autonomous Crew Dragon launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, rendezvoused and docked with the orbiting laboratory, undocked several days later and returned to Earth with a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast.

Demo-2 raises the stakes, taking Demo-1 a critical step further with the addition of a crew: veteran astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley.

This mission will serve as an end-to-end flight test to validate the SpaceX crew transportation system, from launch to docking to splashdown. It is the final flight test for the system to be certified for regular, crewed flights to the station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

• Demo-2 Spacecraft Commander
• Responsible for activities such as launch, landing and recovery

Douglas G. Hurley was selected as an astronaut in 2000. A veteran of two spaceflights, he was the pilot on STS‐127 and STS‐135. Before joining NASA, he was a fighter pilot and test pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps and has logged over 5,500 hours in more than 25 aircraft.

The New York native flew as the pilot aboard space shuttle Endeavour on STS-127, an assembly mission to the International Space Station, in 2009. On his second flight, he served as the pilot aboard space shuttle Atlantis on the program’s final mission, STS-135, in 2011. He has logged more than 680 hours in space.

“Doug is ready for anything, all the time. He is always prepared,” Behnken said of Hurley. “Knowing you’re going to fly into space on a test mission, you couldn’t ask for a better person or a better type of individual to be there with you. I’m just grateful that, doing something like this, I’m doing it with Doug Hurley, because he’s going to be prepared for whatever comes our way.”

• Demo-2 Joint Operations Commander
• Responsible for activities such as rendezvous, docking and undocking, as well as Demo-2 activities while the spacecraft is docked to the International Space Station

Missouri native Robert L. Behnken was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 2000 and is a veteran of two space shuttle flights. A colonel in the U.S. Air Force, Behnken has flown more than 1,500 flight hours in more than 25 different types of aircraft.

He flew as a mission specialist aboard space shuttle Endeavour on STS-123 in March 2008, and again as a mission specialist aboard Endeavour on STS-130 in 2010. Both flights were assembly missions to the International Space Station. He has logged more than 708 hours in space, and more than 37 hours during six spacewalks.

Hurley recently said of Behnken, “there is no stone unturned, no way he doesn’t have every potential eventuality already thought about, five times ahead of almost anybody else. There’s just no question I can ask him that he doesn’t already have the best answer for. It’s just been such a pleasure – and it’s such an asset – to have somebody like that on a crew with you. He’s already got it all figured out.”

SpaceX Demo-2 astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley are now inside the suit room in the Astronaut Crew Quarters inside Kennedy’s Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building. SpaceX suit technicians are helping them as they get dressed in their suits, check the communications and ensure there are no leaks.

SpaceX spacesuits are designed for safety and functionality – but with a nod to comfort and style. The primary purpose of the spacesuit is to provide a cocoon of pressurization, protecting from potential depressurization. A port on the suit’s thigh connects to life support systems, including air and power. The suits also include touchscreen-compatible gloves and a flame-resistant outer layer. The helmet is custom manufactured using 3-D printing technology and includes integrated valves, mechanisms for visor retraction and locking, and microphones.

Like so many other facilities at the Florida spaceport, the suit room has a fascinating history. In this room, Apollo and shuttle crews suited up for flight. Before today, the last crew to suit up in this room was the STS-135 crew, which included Hurley, the mission’s pilot, in July 2011.

NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 crew members Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley are also good friends. They entered the astronaut corps at the same time – the class of 2000; they both married astronauts; they were even in each other’s weddings. Both flew twice to the International Space Station on separate space shuttle missions. Now they’re preparing to fly together.

“We can think ahead in terms of what the other person is going to need, or what the other person is going to want, anticipate the next input, all those sorts of things, which really, in a test flight like this, goes a long way,” Behken said. “You can really anticipate the other person’s reactions versus to have a, ‘Well, I don’t know, Doug. How do you feel about the next series of events?’ I already know the answers to those questions, and it makes a big difference when you’re doing something as critical as spaceflight.”

Good morning and welcome to live coverage of the countdown to a new era in U.S. human spaceflight: the commercial crew era. Here at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, topped by the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, awaits liftoff at 3:22 p.m. EDT.

This mission is NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2, and it will return human spaceflight capability to Florida’s Space Coast with the launch of two American astronauts, Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley, to the International Space Station on an American rocket from American soil as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

The weather has been touch-and-go after Wednesday’s first launch attempt was rescheduled due to unfavorable weather conditions. Today’s forecast predicts a 50-50 chance of favorable weather at launch time today.

We’ll tell you more about the astronauts, the Crew Dragon spacecraft, the Falcon 9 rocket, and the mission to come as the countdown continues, so stay with us.