SpaceX Demo-2 Crew Dragon Astronaut Launch: Everything You Need To Know About The Historic Mission To Space

SpaceX Demo-2 set to make history today. Elon Musk’s company scheduled to launch its first crewed mission, a test flight called Demo-2. That will send NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station aboard a Crew Dragon capsule. Lift-off set for 4:33 p.m. EDT (2033 GMT) from Pad 39A of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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SpaceX Demo-2: What’s Crew Dragon?

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SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is a crewed spacecraft designed to fly astronauts on round trips to the International Space Station for NASA.

In 2014, NASA picked SpaceX as one of two companies (Boeing was the other) to fly astronaut taxi missions to the space station. Crew Dragon is a crewed version of SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon spacecraft. An unpiloted vehicle that has been making resupply flights to the station for NASA since 2012.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon will carry up to four astronauts on regular taxi trips. But the capsule itself can fit up to seven people in all. It launches into space on a Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX’s workhorse booster.

Both vehicles are reusable, with SpaceX regularly landing Falcon 9 first stages and flying them later. SpaceX has also reused several Dragon cargo vehicles and aims to do the same with Crew Dragon.

Unlike Cargo Dragon, the Crew Dragon spacecraft has an emergency abort system. This system designed to separate the capsule from its rocket in the event of a launch emergency. SpaceX demonstrated that system in a successful test earlier this year. Crew Dragon’s service module has a series of sleek fins, as well as solar arrays mounted directly to its hull, rather than in deployable panels like its cargo-only counterpart.

SpaceX Demo-2: Who’s Flying?

The crew for Demo-2 are veteran NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. Behnken will serve as the mission’s joint operations commander while Hurley is a Crew Dragon spacecraft commander. Both men have flown to space multiple times. 

Robert L. Behnken

Robert “Bob” L. Behnken, 49, has flown two space shuttle missions to the International Space Station and served as NASA’s Chief Astronaut from 2012 to 2015. He launched on the STS-123 mission to deliver Japan’s Kibo laboratory to the station in 2008, and later flew STS-130 on Endeavour to deliver the Tranquility module. Behnken has performed six spacewalks and logged more than 29 days in space to date. A native of St. Ann, Missouri, Behnken is a U.S. Air Force colonel and test pilot with a doctorate from Caltech in mechanical engineering. He joined NASA’s astronaut corps in July 2000.

Douglas G. Hurley

Douglas G. Hurley, 53, is retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel who joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 2000 in the same class as Behnken. Hurley has flown on two shuttle missions. The STS-127 mission on Endeavour in 2009 and the STS-135 mission on Atlantis in 2011. Both missions hauled fresh supplies and gear to the station. Hurley’s second shuttle flight was NASA’s final mission of the space shuttle program.

SpaceX Demo-2: How it Gets To ISS?

On Demo-2, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon will take about 19 hours to reach the International Space Station. After lift-off, it will take Crew Dragon about 12 minutes to reach its initial orbit. The first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket will return to Earth to land on a drone ship for future reuse. Crew Dragon will spend a dozen or so hours chasing the space station. Then gradually raising its orbit to the 250-mile (400 kilometers) altitude of the International Space Station.

If all goes well, Crew Dragon will dock itself to the space station on Thursday, May 28, at 11:39 a.m. EDT (1539 GMT). It will link up with a docking port on the station’s Harmony module, with hatches between the two spacecraft at 1:55 p.m. EDT (1755 GMT). While Crew Dragon designed to dock itself autonomously, Hurley will take manual command of the spacecraft during the rendezvous to test the vehicle’s flight systems.

What will they do when they are in the space station?

Mr. Behnken and Mr. Hurley will test the Crew Dragon’s environmental control system, the displays and controls, and the maneuvering thrusters. They will also monitor the autonomous docking system during the approach to the space station, according to Nasa.

The duo will become members of the Expedition 63 crew and perform further tests on the Crew Dragon along with other tasks related to the space station. But the pair’s main mission is to conclude the validation process that is required by Nasa to ensure the spacecraft designed to carry astronauts can operate safely.

How and when will they return?

NASA and SpaceX have not released an exact date for Crew Dragon’s return to Earth for the Demo-2 mission. The Demo-2 mission expected to last anything between one and four months. But Nasa said, the duration of this mission would be determined by when the next commercial crew will be able to travel to the space station. The exact duration will depend on a few factors.

First, the mission’s duration will depend on Crew Dragon’s performance with astronauts aboard. If the spacecraft performs as planned, then there wouldn’t be any engineering concerns on that end.

Second, the duration will also depend on Demo-2’s follow-up mission, called Crew-1, which will be SpaceX’s first operational mission to the space station for NASA. The Crew-1 Dragon spacecraft has built now. It will launch four astronauts to the space station later this year. The spacecraft will be capable of staying in orbit for at least 210 days.

SpaceX Demo-2: How it Lands?

When it is time to return, the Crew Dragon will autonomously undock with Mr. Behnken and Mr. Hurley on board and depart the space station. On an undocking day, Crew Dragon will back away from the station and slowly make its way outside a so-called “keep-out sphere,” a safety zone around the orbiting laboratory.

Crew Dragon will then return to Earth the following day. Ahead of re-entry, the spacecraft will jettison its stubby service module and position itself heat shield down for the plunge through Earth’s atmosphere.

Shortly after firing up its engines to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft will deploy four parachutes. The spacecraft will splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of Florida. SpaceX’s recovery ship, called Go Navigator, will be waiting nearby to retrieve the duo and ferry them to Cape Canaveral.

SpaceX Demo-2: What’s next?

If Demo-2 is successful, SpaceX will be allowed to go ahead with more manned missions to the space stations as part of their 2.6 billion US dollar contract with Nasa. Boeing also has a similar deal with the space agency, worth 4.2 billion US dollars, to send astronauts to the space station in its CST-100 Starliner crew capsule. Although its vehicle not expected to be ready until next year.

SpaceX has made agreements to fly space tourists on the spacecraft, and use a Crew Dragon to ferry passengers to the space station for another company. For the space tourist deal, SpaceX has an agreement in place with the U.S. space tourism company Space Adventures to fly four passengers on a free-flying mission Crew Dragon as early as late 2021. That mission will last five days and send up to four people an orbital experience unlike any space tourist flight to date and the cost of that flight as not been released.

SpaceX has also agreed to launch passengers to the International Space Station for the company Axiom Space, which is developing a new commercial module for the station. That mission will be a 10-day trip to the station for three private astronauts using a Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Watch the SpaceX launch live here. Lift-off set for 4:33 p.m. EDT (2033 GMT) from Pad 39A of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.