For humanity in the advent of space exploration, the past three days have been a time of wonder, anticipation, and exuberant vitality. For the first time in the United States since 2011, an orbital spacecraft — SpaceX Crew Dragon — was launched this past Saturday from the Kennedy Space Center, carrying two biding individuals — Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley — a team of NASA astronauts who arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) just yesterday.
Today, after much movement and work in the ISS, the two astronauts — along with NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, who is currently working on the ISS platform as Commander of Expedition 63 — had their first news conference together. Cassidy, who has been working at the space station since April, was the lone American aboard the station before the arrival of his two peers. Now reunited and safe, the three are getting ready to work for the new age of space exploration with Crew Dragon.
“When we got that hatch open, you could tell it was a brand new vehicle, with smiley faces on the other side, smiley face on mine,” said Cassidy today during a news conference from the International Space Station.
“Wonderful to see my friends, and wonderful to see a brand new vehicle,” he continued.
The launch of astronauts Behnken and Hurley was a follow-up after the first attempt of the Demo-2 mission that was set to occur on May 27, but was called off 20 minutes before liftoff due to poor weather inclinations. Although postponed, promising weather conditions allowed the launch to proceed, and the long-waited launch of the SpaceX Dragon capsule finally became a reality this past weekend on May 30.
It was 3:22 P.M. ET when the Falcon 9 rocket detached from its launchpad, setting the astronauts up for a 19-hour flight, and scheduling the Crew Dragon to dock with the ISS at 10:30 A.M. on Sunday. Now that Behnken and Hurley arrived, they are expected to remain on the station for four months to work with NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy.
“It’s been nine years since we’ve launched American astronauts on American rockets from American soil, and now it’s done. We have done it,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said after the launch on NASA TV this Saturday.
Upon arriving on the space station yesterday, Austronauts Hurley and Behnken then “captured the flag” — an awaited moment of pride for many Americans. This is because the United States flag was left on the ISS during NASA’s final shuttle mission, STS-135 in 2011, which included astronaut Hurley. Of this, it was intended that the flag would be captured by the next crew to launch from the U.S.— and SpaceX Crew Dragon just accomplished that.
But of course, with Saturday’s historic launch, Crew Dragon accomplished much more.
Besides breaking the decade long hiatus of a crew space orbit, Elon Musk’s SpaceX touched a personal milestone as an organization, accomplishing their first crewed mission. Most importantly, they also established a historical record as the first-ever private spacecraft to launch humans into the Earth’s orbit.
NASA plans to send astronauts regularly to the space station, but they must pay SpaceX a little more than half a billion per person to do so. The next Crew Dragon spacecraft, Crew-1, is set to be launched on August 30 at the earliest, paving a broader road for the futuristic possibility of space tourism. This particular spacecraft will carry four NASA astronauts: Victor Glover, Jr., Michael Hopkins, Shannon Walker and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi.
Designed as a test-flight to ensure the reliability of the access to space at the lowest costs in its entirety, SpaceX personally aspires to develop a rapidly reusable launching system that may compare with the reusability of aircraft. With the increased competition in the industry, the possibilities are grand.
The launch is the start of a revolution — a culmination that brings humanity one step closer to the ‘unknown’.
“We’re at the dawn of a new age and we’re really leading the beginning of the space revolution,” NASA deputy administrator Jim Morhard told the press post-launch.
