SpaceX, NASA target May 27 for 1st Crew Dragon test flight with astronauts

The first flight of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil in nearly nine years finally has a launch date: May 27. 

The mission will launch astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft in a final test flight for NASA. The mission, Demo-2, will mark NASA's first crew launch from American soil since the agency's space shuttle fleet retired in July 2011. 

Liftoff is set for 4:32 p.m. EDT (2032 GMT) from historic Launch Pad 39A — the same site used for NASA's Apollo and shuttle missions — at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"On May 27, will once again launch American astronauts on American rockets from American soil!" NASA chief Jim Bridenstine wrote on Twitter in an announcement today (April 17). 

NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (left) and Doug Hurley rehearse their Demo-2 test flight on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceflight ahead of a May 27, 2020 launch to the International Space Station.
(Image: © NASA)

The Demo-2 mission will use a Falcon 9 rocket (also built by SpaceX) to launch Benhken and Hurley on the first crewed test flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft. NASA has not set a specific duration for the mission, describing it only as "an extended stay at the space station," in an announcement. 

Once the mission is complete, Behnken and Hurley will return to Earth with a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean, off Florida's east coast, to be retrieved by a SpaceX recovery ship.

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