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After becoming the first NASA astronauts to launch from Florida in nine years, astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are reflecting on how flying in their previous spaceship, the space shuttle compares to their new ride built by SpaceX’s the Crew Dragon spacecraft.Hurley and Behnken launched from Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Saturday at 3:22 p.m. after Crew Dragon separated from the rocket it took about 19 hours for the spacecraft to arrive for docking at the International Space Station. During that journey, traveling at 17,500 mph at times, the test pilots and astronauts got to be the first to try out the brand new spacecraft.On Monday, in a call from the space station, both astronauts and their fellow station crew member NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy reflected on how it felt and looked to fly in Crew Dragon and see it approaching the ISS.What it was like launching on Falcon 9Both Hurley and Behnken said launching on Falcon 9 was very different than the space shuttle. Hurley described Falcon 9 as a “pure flying machine.â€â€œThe Falcon 9 is a liquid-fueled rocket. Remember shuttle had solid rocket boosters to start with, those burned very rough for the first two and a half minutes," Hurley said. “The first stage with Falcon 9 with the 9 Merlin engines and roughly the same amount of time and it was a much smoother ride.â€Hurley said he and Behnken both felt the difference when the Falcon 9 first and second stage separated during launch.“At that point, we go from roughly 3 Gs to 0 Gs ... when that Merlin vacuum engine fires then we start accelerating again for the next 5-6 minutes until we achieve orbit so totally different than shuttle,†Hurley said. “It was smooth and got a little rougher as Bob had mentioned before with the Merlin vacuum engine and it’ll be interesting to talk to the SpaceX folks to find out why it was a little bit rougher ride on second stage than it was for shuttle on those three main engines.â€More at link.
Is anyone scheduled to return in the SpaceX capsule on it returning to earth?
Saturday's launch to the ISS is only the first half of NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 test flight.The Crew Dragon will next have to safely ferry the astronauts back to Earth.The exact duration of the mission is yet to be determined but the Demo-2 astronauts will remain in orbit between one and four months.This particular Dragon can stay docked to the ISS for 110 days and fully operational Dragons will stay for nearly twice as long.
How long will Demo-2 stay on the ISS?https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1289567/SpaceX-how-long-demo2-stay-ISS-when-NASA-astronauts-return-Earth-Crew-Dragon
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft will likely return to Earth in August to wrap up a test flight to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, a senior space agency official said Tuesday.The exact schedule for Hurley and Behnken’s return to Earth will hinge on several factors, such as the performance of their Crew Dragon spaceship, the progress of their work on the space station, and weather conditions in the capsule’s landing zones in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, according to Ken Bowersox, the acting associate administrator for NASA’s human exploration and operations mission directorate.Bowersox said Tuesday that the Crew Dragon’s Demo-2 mission — the first SpaceX mission to carry astronauts — is proceeding as planned, and the crew capsule is performing well since its launch on a Falcon 9 rocket May 30 from the Kennedy Space Center and docking with the space station one day later.More at link.
