Production: Pablo Cantudo
On Wednesday May 27, the entire world noted on its calendar the historic day that SpaceX would finally put its Crew Dragon spacecraft into orbit , the first private spacecraft to take two crew members into space; these, in turn, would be the first astronauts to take off from American soil in nine years. At the edge of the established time, the weather forced at the last minute to delay the launch until Saturday 31. The big moment was waiting.
Finally, on May 31st, at 21:22 CET, the launch of the first manned private space flight took place. NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley took off aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft, on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Its destiny: to dock with the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX had made history.
Upon launch, the spacecraft accelerated its two passengers to approximately 27 359 kilometers per hour, putting them on an intercept course with the ISS. 24 hours after launch, NASA announced that astronauts Behnken and Hurley had successfully joined the ISS crew. They have done it!
And now that?
This mission serves to validate the company’s crew transportation system, including the launch pad, rocket, suit, spacecraft, and operational capabilities. This will also be the first time NASA astronauts will test orbiting spacecraft systems.
After successfully docking on the ISS, Behnken and Hurley were welcomed aboard the station and will become new members of the Expedition 63 crew to launch the Demo-2 mission. There, they will conduct tests on Crew Dragon in addition to conducting research and other tasks with the space station crew.
The operational Crew Dragon spacecraft will be able to stay in orbit for at least 210 days. At the conclusion of the mission, the Dragon Crew will automatically undock with the two astronauts on board, exit the space station, and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. After a ‘dip’ off the Atlantic coast of Florida, the crew will be picked up at sea by SpaceX’s Go Navigator recovery ship and return to Cape Canaveral.
The new era of space flight
The Demo-2 mission will be the final big step before NASA’s commercial crew program certifies the Crew Dragon as the vehicle for long-duration operational missions on the space station. This certification will allow NASA to continue technological research that lays the foundation for future exploration of the Moon and Mars from the Artemis program, which will place the first woman and the next man on the lunar surface in 2024.
