Historic First Space Launch from US Soil Since 2011

Although our news continues to obsess over the Covid-19 situation, there are other events happening that are equally worthy of our focus. One such landmark is scheduled for this month, when for the first time in nine years, the US is preparing a launch to space from its own soil.

The flight is currently scheduled for Wednesday, May 27th when it will lift off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Aboard will be two astronauts, Air Force Col. Bob Behnken, 49, of Creve Coeur, Missouri, and retired Marine Col. Doug Hurley, 53, of Endicott, New York.

These men are no strangers to the space program. Both were test pilots and have previously flown onboard the now retired Endeavor space shuttle.

Col. Bob Behnken and Col.(ret) Doug Hurley
with the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
Photo credit: NASA

Col. Behnken manned flights in 2008 and 2010, and has logged more than 37 hours in EVAs (Extra Vehicular Activities also known as space walks). On this flight, Behnken will serve as the joint operations commander, where he'll be responsible for the rendezvous and docking/undocking with the space station.

Col(ret) Hurley was aboard Endeavor in 2009 and piloted the very last shuttle mission of Atlantis in July of 2011. Hurley will be the spacecraft commander, responsible for launch and landing.

Since our shuttle fleet was retired, the US has had to depend on Russian spacecraft to get American astronauts to and from the ISS, or International Space Station, at a cost of about $80 million per astronaut.

This time the men's conveyance will be a new craft, the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon crew spacecraft owned and operated by SpaceX, a company founded by Elon Musk. The Dragon spacecraft arrived at Kennedy Space Center on February 23, 2020. The flight is scheduled to lift off from launch pad 39A, previously used for Apollo and space shuttle missions.

This flight will be a historic milestone for NASA, not only for space exploration once again being US-based, but also for marking the first time that U.S. astronauts are carried into space aboard a commercial spacecraft that is owned and operated by a private entity, not a federal US agency.

The Commercial Crew Program could bring a new era in space flight to Florida's Space Coast. This test mission will help prove the commercial systems meet NASA’s requirements for certification to carry astronauts to the ISS and back.

There are, at present, three astronauts aboard the ISS: Two Russians--Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, and one NASA astronaut, Christopher Cassidy.

And this gives me another opportunity to share one of my favorite YouTube offerings, a SpaceX video of the Falcon heavy rocket and Dragon spacecraft, set to the music from the sci-fi television series The Expanse. Enjoy the possibilities. :)

Information for this blog was sourced from the following articles:
Military.com: Airman and Marine Will Head to Space in First US Manned Launch Since 2011
Kennedy Space Center: Commercial Crew Launch
Smithsonianmag.com: On May 27, US Astronauts will Launch from American Soil...

Have a great week.