NASA’s Astronauts Became SpaceX’s Customers

A successful launch on Wednesday could forever change how the world thinks about getting people to space.

It took work across three presidencies, those of George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald J. Trump, but the United States is at last prepared once again, after nearly a decade, to launch American astronauts into orbit from American soil on an American-built rocket.

“This is a unique opportunity to bring all of America together in one moment in time and say, look at how bright the future is,” Jim Bridenstine, NASA’s administrator, said during a news conference on Tuesday.

Lori Garver, who served as NASA’s deputy administrator during the Obama administration, said in an interview that she hoped this moment would have come sooner. But she also said she was “really pleased with how, even in the pandemic, much attention and excitement there is for it.”

The United States sent astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s and then built the world’s only space shuttle fleet for trips into and out of orbit. But the destruction of the shuttle Columbia in a 2003 accident eventually left NASA dependent on costly Russian spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

If a private company can loft humans to orbit today, why not the moon next or Mars some years in the future? A successful launch could ignite a future long imagined by science fiction writers in which space is a destination for more and more people.

Almost everything about the journey to space scheduled on Wednesday is different from earlier eras of human spaceflight.

The launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida where the mission will blast off — the same one used by the last shuttle mission in 2011 — has been rebuilt to handle Mr. Musk’s Falcon 9 rocket.

Crew Dragon Demo-2

Demo-2 also referred to as SpaceX Demonstration Mission 2 or Crew Dragon Demo-2 is a planned first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, scheduled for launch to the International Space Station on 27 May 2020 at 20:33:33 UTC

Demo-2 Mission

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and SpaceX are all set for the Demo-2 mission which is scheduled for 27th May, 2020 from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA.

• Demo-2 Mission will send astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

Key Points

• Under the Mission, astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley will 
• dock with ISS and then remain there for between one to four months, depending on the
•  time of next mission.
• It is a part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which is a partnership to develop
•  and fly 
• human space transportation systems.
• SpaceX spacecraft named Crew Dragon will be used to take them into space.
  
• It will be only the fifth class of US spacecraft to take human beings
•  into orbit, after the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle programs.

Instead of riding to the spacecraft in Astrovan, a modified Airstream motor home that NASA used to transport shuttle crews, Mr. Hurley and Mr. Behnken will take a trip in a gull-winged Model X S.U.V., manufactured by Mr. Musk’s other major company, Tesla.

Wearing stylish SpaceX spacesuits, the two will walk across a sleek walkway about 230 feet above the ground to board the SpaceX-built capsule, which sits on top of the Falcon 9.

This launch will be the first time a private company and not a governmental space agency will be in charge of sending astronauts to orbit. Even though the passengers are still NASA astronauts, and the agency’s officials certainly could call off the launch if they saw something concerning, it is a SpaceX control room with SpaceX employees scanning the monitors who will be directing the launch.

“We’re really looking to be a customer to SpaceX, and to other companies, in the future,” said James Morhard, NASA’s deputy administrator. “That’s what we’re trying to do is to create an expanse, really expand the economy in low-Earth orbit. That’s really what this is about.”

Already, two companies have announced plans to buy launches in SpaceX’s capsule, the Crew Dragon, to take non-NASA passengers to space. Those missions might fly as soon as a year from now. One would take space tourists on a visit to the International Space Station; the other would be a trip on an elliptical orbit around Earth that might view the planet from an altitude two to three times as high as the space station’s orbit. Tom Cruise has even expressed interest in using the space station for a film.

A successful launch could also instill confidence that a similar approach will work for the lunar landers NASA hopes will be needed to take astronauts to the surface of the moon as soon as 2024. One of the proposals NASA is financing is from SpaceX for a giant spacecraft called Starship that the company hopes to eventually send to Mars.