NASA/SpaceX make history with Crew Dragon mission

摘要

ASTRONAUTS HAVE launched from the US to the International Space Station (ISS) for the first time in a commercially produced and operated crew transportation system. SpaceX's Crew Dragon lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 1522hrs (EDT) on May 30, carrying NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley. It was launched on the company's Falcon 9 reusable two-stage rocket, which returned and landed on a drone ship after successfully deploying the Crew Dragon in low-Earth orbit (LEO). In a press release, the agency said: "A new era of human spaceflight is set to begin as American astronauts once again launch on an American rocket from [US] soil to [LEO] for the first time since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle [programme] in 2011." Dubbed the SpaceX Demo-2 mission, the spaceflight served as an end-to-end demonstration to validate the Crew Dragon module, focusing on its launch, in-orbit, docking and landing operations. It marked SpaceX's second test of the system and its first manned mission, which will pave the way for its certification to conduct regular crewed flights to the ISS under NASA's Commercial Crew Program.