SpaceX, NASA aim for historic crew launch in mid-May despite coronavirus outbreak
By
Mike Wall
Published Mar 24, 2020 6:35 PM EDT
The first crewed orbital launch from American soil is scheduled to lift off just two months from now, despite the coronavirus outbreak.
NASA
and SpaceX are targeting mid- to late May for the launch of Demo-2,
which will send agency astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the
International Space Station (ISS) aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule, NASA officials confirmed in a media advisory on Wednesday (March 18).
The
flight, which will employ a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, will lift off from
NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. KSC was the jumping-off
point for the last homegrown orbital human spaceflight — STS-135, whose
July 2011 launch kicked off the final mission of NASA's space shuttle
program. (Suborbital flight is a different story: Virgin Galactic has
launched two crewed test missions to suborbital space, in December 2018
and February 2019.)
SpaceX's next Crew Dragon spacecraft, the Demo-2 vehicle, is seen after completing acoustic testing in Cape Canaveral, Florida ahead of its first crewed launch in 2020. (Image: © SpaceX)
The Demo-2 target date is roughly in line with previous reports, which indicated SpaceX was aiming for an early May liftoff.
But, like other launch targets, this one is not set in stone. The media
advisory says that mid- to late May is the earliest possible window,
and that NASA and SpaceX are closely tracking the coronavirus pandemic,
which has caused widespread disruption to work and travel around the
world.
"NASA is proactively monitoring the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation as it evolves," NASA officials wrote in the advisory.
"The agency will continue to follow guidance from the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention and the agency's chief health and medical
officer and communicate any updates that may impact mission planning or
media access, as they become available."
Demo-2 will be the second flight to the ISS for Crew Dragon. One of the capsules aced an uncrewed test flight to the orbiting lab, called Demo-1, in March 2019. If Demo-2 goes well, SpaceX can start prepping for contracted crew flights to the ISS, which the company will fly under a $2.6 billion deal it signed with NASA in 2014. (The cargo version of Dragon has flown many robotic resupply flights to the ISS for NASA, under a different contract.)
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News / Astronomy
SpaceX, NASA aim for historic crew launch in mid-May despite coronavirus outbreak
By Mike Wall
Published Mar 24, 2020 6:35 PM EDT
Partner Content
The first crewed orbital launch from American soil is scheduled to lift off just two months from now, despite the coronavirus outbreak.
NASA and SpaceX are targeting mid- to late May for the launch of Demo-2, which will send agency astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule, NASA officials confirmed in a media advisory on Wednesday (March 18).
The flight, which will employ a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, will lift off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. KSC was the jumping-off point for the last homegrown orbital human spaceflight — STS-135, whose July 2011 launch kicked off the final mission of NASA's space shuttle program. (Suborbital flight is a different story: Virgin Galactic has launched two crewed test missions to suborbital space, in December 2018 and February 2019.)
SpaceX's next Crew Dragon spacecraft, the Demo-2 vehicle, is seen after completing acoustic testing in Cape Canaveral, Florida ahead of its first crewed launch in 2020. (Image: © SpaceX)
The Demo-2 target date is roughly in line with previous reports, which indicated SpaceX was aiming for an early May liftoff. But, like other launch targets, this one is not set in stone. The media advisory says that mid- to late May is the earliest possible window, and that NASA and SpaceX are closely tracking the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused widespread disruption to work and travel around the world.
"NASA is proactively monitoring the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation as it evolves," NASA officials wrote in the advisory. "The agency will continue to follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the agency's chief health and medical officer and communicate any updates that may impact mission planning or media access, as they become available."
Demo-2 will be the second flight to the ISS for Crew Dragon. One of the capsules aced an uncrewed test flight to the orbiting lab, called Demo-1, in March 2019. If Demo-2 goes well, SpaceX can start prepping for contracted crew flights to the ISS, which the company will fly under a $2.6 billion deal it signed with NASA in 2014. (The cargo version of Dragon has flown many robotic resupply flights to the ISS for NASA, under a different contract.)
Click here to continue reading on SPACE.com.
Report a Typo