Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Crew launch 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley, both engineers and test pilots, will be the first Americans to go back to space on American spacecraft since 2011.

They will perform systems tests while Crew Dragon accelerates to 17,000 mph on the way to the International Space Station.In about 24 hours, Dragon will autonomously dock with ISS while astronauts in the station and on board the spacecraft carefully monitor the approach and docking. Behnken and Hurley will serve at the station for an undetermined length of time.


Dragon will then undock and bring them home, with splashdown just off the Atlantic coast of Florida. SpaceX's Go Navigator recovery vessel will pick them up to return to Cape Canaveral.

What is learned on this mission will help lay the ground work for future exploration of the moon and Mars. NASA's Artemis mission will land the first woman and the next man on the lunar surface in 2024.

from NASA website

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