Hurricane Might Delay NASA Astronauts Return Slated For August 2
- by Lorene Schwartz
- in People
- — Aug 2, 2020
The name of the USA astronauts is Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.
Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are scheduled to undock SpaceX's Dragon capsule from the space station at 7:34 p.m.
Hurricane Isaias, which is forecast to sweep up along the Atlantic coast of Florida over the weekend, might delay the plans.
With this test flight, NASA and the US aerospace industry are marking the first successful launch of a crew to the space station on a commercially built and operated American rocket and spacecraft, and a safe return to Earth for that spacecraft and crew. They were launched in May to the space station.
Although the SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission has had a smooth going as of now, the landing of the capsule will be a big test for the company as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.
The splashdown return will be the first one for United States astronauts in 45 years.
Two SpaceX recovery ships, the Go Searcher and the Go Navigator, made up of spacecraft engineers, recovery experts and medical professionals, will be waiting to pull the capsule on board and help the astronauts get out as they begin readjusting to gravity.
The capsule will splash down in the ocean and a recovery team on boats will scoop up the crew and capsule. If the Crew Dragon is authorized to depart tonight, it is expected to arrive at its landing at 2:42 pm ET on Sunday.
A NASA spokesman said Friday that officials are now targeting to land the capsule near Panama City, one of four potential Gulf splash sites that were shortlisted by NASA and SpaceX.
During a press conference on Friday, Mr. Behnken said; "We won't leave the space station without some good landing opportunities in front of us, good splashdown weather".
Australian police arrest Black Lives Matter organizer
Six people were arrested at the demonstration, in a move which one of the organisers slammed as "disgusting" behaviour by police. Today's Black Lives Matter rally in Sydney's CBD was supposed to start at 12 noon, but by 11.50am it was all over.
Demo-2 then launched one month later, bringing the Station's crew compliment to five and enabling the resumption of most scientific work on the outpost that had been stopped due to the lack of crew.
Like launch, the ride back will be essentially automated, with the crew and flight controllers intervening only if necessary.
Dragon Endeavour will then be brought back to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, where engineers and technicians will thoroughly inspect the craft before refurbishing it for its next mission, Crew-2, in Spring 2021.
These have just been officially announced as NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet.
Behnken said even before his launch, they had an inkling she would be assigned to a SpaceX flight.
"We have confidence that the teams on the ground are, of course, watching that much more closely than we are", said Behnken.
Hurley is married to recently retired NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg.
Elon Musk's SpaceX easily beat Boeing, which isn't expected to launch its first crew until next year and will land in the U.S. Southwest.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches into space from Kennedy Space Center with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft on May 30, 2020.
Years prior, NASA agreed to stop purchasing enough seats on the Russian Soyuz at the end of 2019 that Soyuz crew missions to Station would reduce from four to two per year - with those eliminated two flights being flown instead by the Commercial Crew vehicles of Dragon and Starliner.
