Trump to attend Demo-2 launch, but fewer other guestsby Jeff Foust — May 23, 2020 [SN]
Vice President Mike Pence and President Donald Trump are both expected to attend the Demo-2 commercial crew launch attempt May 27. Credit: NASA/Bill IngallsWASHINGTON — While both the president and vice president plan to attend the Demo-2 commercial crew launch, there will be far fewer people attending the first American human orbital spaceflight in nearly a decade than once expected.
The White House announced May 22 that President Donald Trump will go to the Kennedy Space Center for the Demo-2 launch on May 27, but provided few other details about the visit.
https://spacenews.com/trump-to-attend-demo-2-launch-but-fewer-other-guests/SpaceX overcame parachute, thruster problems in Crew Dragon developmentby Jeff Foust — May 24, 2020 [SN]
SpaceX conducted the last parachute test for its Crew Dragon spacecraft May 1, wrapping up an accelerated test program. Credit: SpaceXWASHINGTON — To get a new, state-of-the-art crewed spacecraft ready to carry astronauts, SpaceX and NASA had to overcome problems with a technology long thought to be understood.
One of the last tests that SpaceX had to complete for the Crew Dragon was for its Mark 3 parachute system. The company announced May 1 that it successfully carried out the final test of the parachute system, with 27 tests overall carried out since last fall.
https://spacenews.com/spacex-overcame-parachute-thruster-problems-in-crew-dragon-development/Video: Dragon astronauts practice for launch dayMay 24, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
Following the same timeline as they will on launch day, NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken put on their SpaceX flight suits and strapped inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/24/video-dragon-astronauts-practice-for-launch-day/Crew Dragon astronauts, both married to veteran space fliers, share unique bondMay 25, 2020 William Harwood [SFN]
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (left) and Doug Hurley (right) pose on the tower at launch pad 39A Saturday during a dress rehearsal for launch day. Credit: SpaceXIt’s one thing to watch a spouse blast off on a rocketship, especially when the spacecraft is making its first flight with people on board. But it’s altogether another matter when the anxious spouse is an astronaut as well.
That’s the case for Karen Nyberg and Megan McArthur, both veteran astronauts married to the two men who plan to take off aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon Wednesday for a historic flight to the International Space Station.
It will be the first flight of an American spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts launching from U.S. soil since the space shuttle completed its final mission in 2011. And it will be the first time in space history that astronauts will ride commercially developed American-made rockets and spacecraft not owned and operated by the space agency.
A veteran of two space flights, including a long-duration stay aboard the space station, Nyberg, now retired from the astronaut corps, is married to Crew Dragon commander Douglas Hurley, a two-flight veteran and pilot of the shuttle Atlantis during the program’s final mission. The couple has a 10-year-old son, Jack.
McArthur, who helped service the Hubble Space Telescope during a final shuttle overhaul in 2009, is married to Crew Dragon joint operations commander Robert Behnken, one of Hurley’s best friends. They have a 6-year-old son, Theodore.
NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, veteran of a shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, is married to Crew Dragon astronaut Bob Behnken. Credit: NASA/Joel KowskyBy almost any standard, the Hurleys and Behnkens are standouts — even by astronaut standards.
Hurley is a veteran Marine Corps F/A-18 test pilot. Behnken holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from CalTech and served as an Air Force flight test engineer with the F-22 program. Nyberg holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and McArthur earned a doctorate in oceanography.
All four met after being selected by NASA as part of a 17-member astronaut class in 2000.
“We know how they’re going to feel on launch day,” Hurley said in an interview with CBS News. “And it is way harder on them to watch somebody that you care for get on a rocket and go fly than it is for those two guys on the rocket. I mean, it’s a tough job to be the one watching.
“They understand the risks, they understand the trades, they understand why you’re doing it and how you feel about it. That in itself makes it a lot easier. But I think they understand a lot more in most cases maybe somebody who came from another background.”
Asked how she felt about it, Nyberg said, “I think in some ways you can know too much.”
“But I have so much confidence in the two of them as operators,” she said. “I know if there are any problems, they are cool, calm and collected and (will) work through it. As far as the risk goes, you know, I accepted risk for myself a long time ago and just understand that that’s part of our career.”Karen L. Nyberg@AstroKarenN 2:49 PM - May 24, 2020
Arriving in Florida with a flyby of your dad’s spaceship on the launch pad... Priceless. #LaunchAmerica #CrewDragon
Twitter
Said McArthur: “It’s comforting to us in a way to have knowledge of the technical challenges that they might be facing, to understand how the teams work when they’re trying to resolve those challenges because it gives you a lot of confidence. As Karen said, it gives you a lot of confidence in the process as they go through this mission.”
Hurley and Behnken have been training for the past several years for their Crew Dragon flight, routinely flying from Houston to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, to SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, and various other job-related destinations.
While managing life on the home front is difficult for the spouse who stays behind, the fact that the families are such close friends definitely helps.
“We’ve been friends for 20 years,” said McArthur. “We started together, we’re still friends together, we have kids now who are playing well together. And so sometimes when Bob and Doug are out in California, and we know they’re working hard, we’ll go out to dinner together, we’ll take the boys and go out to dinner together somewhere.
“But as Karen said, it’s just, you know, in any couple (where) both people are working, you kind of hand back and forth that domestic responsibility when somebody else’s work is surging, and it’s not really any different for us. You take the opportunity to support one another when it’s the other person’s turn.”
Karen Nyberg, wife of Crew Dragon commander Doug Hurley, has logged 180 days in space on two missions. She’s seen here in the Cupola on the International Space Station in 2013. Credit: NASASpaceX launched an unpiloted Crew Dragon to the space station last year, a test flight flight that went off without a hitch. The company has resolved earlier problems with the parachute system needed to lower the capsule to an ocean splashdown and replaced pressurization mechanisms responsible for an explosion during a subsequent ground test.
In January, SpaceX launched a Crew Dragon atop a Falcon 9 booster and deliberately triggered a rocket-powered abort, showing the spacecraft can quickly and autonomously propel a crew capsule to safety in the event of a catastrophic failure.
Unlike the space shuttle, which had so-called “black zones” during ascent in which unsurvivable propulsion failures were a reality, the Crew Dragon was designed to safely abort at any point from the launch pad to orbit. In addition, the Falcon 9 can suffer one and possibly two first stage engine failures and still reach space.
But Hurley and Behnken will still be riding a rocket, and the risks are higher than most people are used to dealing with.
“We have those discussions inside the house,” Behnken said. “I don’t want to spoil the movie for folks who haven’t seen it, but the ‘First Man’ movie that recently came out, there’s a scene in there where Neil Armstrong is tasked by his wife with explaining to his children what the risk in front of them actually is.
“My son is a little bit on the young side for that explanation, but we’ve had that conversation. That’s part of my job … not put it all on her to make sure that the rest of the family understands as well that there’s risk associated with it. It isn’t all just interviews and laughing and joking around. There’s risk involved, and folks need to appreciate that.”Bob Behnken@AstroBehnken 7:25 PM - May 12, 2020
My son and I took in a recent Falcon 9/Dragon launch together. This is what it took to get his approval for me to be onboard later this month!
Twitter
When he explained the flight and his assignment to his son, Theodore, “the only question he had was whether or not the Dragon was going to roar. So they went to Florida where they watched a Dragon cargo ship blast off “and he got to (hear) the roar of the Dragon himself.”
Behnken said he told his son “we’ve done everything we can … to make sure that the Dragon isn’t gonna bite us and if it tries, there’s an escape system that’s going to help us get away from the Falcon.”
“I think the thing I’m most looking forward to is being able to share this experience with my son,” he said. “This’ll be something completely new for him. And so I’m just really excited to share that experience with him.”
Nyberg said their son was only 18 months old when Hurley took off aboard Atlantis and just 3 years old when she took off aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on her last flight.
“He hasn’t talked about being scared or nervous,” she said of 10-year-old Jack. “He’s talked about how proud of his of his dad but you know, I don’t want to talk about being scared or nervous either and have him pick up on that. So we’ll see how it how it goes when the day comes.””
For her part, McArthur said she and Behnken “just try to talk to him as normally as possible about you know, this is daddy’s job, this is mommy’s job, dad’s gonna go and launch on a rocket and go to space station so that it’s just kind of a normal thing for him to absorb.”
“I’m trying to not build up a lot of excitement around this one moment because that just can be overwhelming, I think, for for children.”
One unusual aspect of the Crew Dragon test flight is that the families will not know when the mission might come to an end until well after the astronauts reach orbit. The spacecraft can remain aloft of up to 120 days, but the crew might come down earlier depending on landing weather and a variety of other factors.
Neither Hurley nor Behnken have spent more than about two weeks at a time in space. McArthur also had a relatively short shuttle mission. But Nyberg spent 166 days aboard the International Space Station in 2013.
Asked if she had any advice for her husband, Nyberg said it’s important to savor the experience because “the time goes so fast.”
“When I was there, I knew my mission was going to be five-and-a-half months. What I really tried to do was enjoy the things that were unusual about it. Knowing that once I got back I was not going to be able to look out at the Earth anymore, I was not going to be able to fly, to float quickly, grab a handrail and zoom around the corner.
“All those little things that are special about being in space, just take advantage of those while you can.”Source:
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/25/crew-dragon-astronauts-both-married-to-veteran-space-fliers-share-unique-bond/Weather primary concern for Demo-2 launchby Jeff Foust — May 25, 2020 [SN]
SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft atop its Falcon 9 rocket at Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: SpaceXWASHINGTON — NASA and SpaceX officials said after a final pre-launch review they had no major issues about the upcoming Demo-2 commercial crew launch beyond one over which they have no control: the weather.
NASA concluded a launch readiness review May 25 for the Demo-2 mission, the final pre-launch review for a mission that will send NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station on the first crewed flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.
https://spacenews.com/weather-primary-concern-for-demo-2-launch/SpaceX crew launch comes with new weather constraints for downrange abortsMay 26, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Demo-2 mission’s May 27 launch attempt was scrubbed due to poor weather. SpaceX plans another launch attempt at 3:22 p.m. EDT (1922 GMT) Saturday, May 30.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft stand on launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA/Bill IngallsMission managers will be closely monitoring the weather for the first launch of astronauts aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, not just around the Kennedy Space Center, but along a corridor stretching thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean in case the crew capsule has to escape from its Falcon 9 rocket during the climb into orbit.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/26/spacex-crew-launch-comes-with-new-weather-constraints-for-downrange-aborts/Current and former NASA leadership share credit for commercial crewby Jeff Foust — May 26, 2020 [SN]
Former NASA administrator Charles Bolden said his successor, Jim Bridenstine, is "working out to be a great administrator," as the two men shared credit for the commercial crew program. Credit: NASA/Bill IngallsWASHINGTON — On the eve of the first crewed orbital flight from the United States in nearly nine years, both the current NASA administrator and his predecessor agreed that credit for the ultimate success of the commercial crew program should be shared.
https://spacenews.com/current-and-former-nasa-leadership-share-credit-for-commercial-crew/Crew Dragon ready for historic launch as NASA looks ahead to next missionby Jeff Foust — May 26, 2020 [SN]
A SpaceX Falcon 9 with the Demo-2 Crew Dragon at Launch Complex 39A during recent pre-launch preparations. Credit: SpaceXWASHINGTON — As NASA and SpaceX complete final preparations for the first crewed flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, the agency is already looking ahead to the spacecraft’s next mission.
Technicians spent the day May 26 wrapping up work ahead of the scheduled 4:33 p.m. Eastern May 27 launch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft on the Demo-2 mission. That included lowering the Falcon 9 rocket from the vertical to horizontal position at Launch Complex 39A for what NASA described as an inspection of a water radiator system used by ground support equipment to keep the spacecraft cool. The work was completed and the rocket returned to the vertical position later in the day.
https://spacenews.com/crew-dragon-ready-for-historic-launch-as-nasa-looks-ahead-to-next-mission/NASA adding new television views for SpaceX crew launchMay 27, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated to reflect a scrub of the May 27 launch attempt.
The convoy carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken is seen in the background behind SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on pad 39A during a dress rehearsal Saturday, May 23. Credit: NASA/Joel KowskyNASA’s live television coverage of the first human spaceflight to take off from the Kennedy Space Center in nearly nine years will include features familiar to launch viewers, and new camera views to document the historic flight of astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/05/27/nasa-adding-new-television-views-for-spacex-crew-launch/Commercial crew astronauts accept risks of test flightby Jeff Foust — May 27, 2020 [SN]
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (left) and Doug Hurley, seen here in a May 23 launch rehearsal, say they understand the risks associated with flying a new spacecraft. Credit: SpaceXWASHINGTON — The astronauts who will fly the first Crew Dragon mission say they understand and accept the risks of a new spacecraft, which they believe can’t be boiled down to a single number.
NASA’s commercial crew program set a number of safety requirements for the spacecraft whose development it supported. Among them was a “loss-of-crew” figure of merit — a measure of the probability of death or permanent disability of one or more people on a spacecraft during a mission — of 1 in 270.
https://spacenews.com/commercial-crew-astronauts-accept-risks-of-test-flight/Weather scrubs SpaceX commercial crew launchby Jeff Foust — May 27, 2020 Updated 6:05 p.m. Eastern with Bridenstine comments. [SN]
The SpaceX Falcon 9 with its Crew Dragon spacecraft moments before weather conditions scrubbed the launch. Credit: NASA TVWASHINGTON — The first human orbital spaceflight from the United States in nearly nine years came within 17 minutes of launch May 27 before weather conditions postponed the launch.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 was scheduled to lift off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 4:33 p.m. Eastern placing a Crew Dragon spacecraft, with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on board, into orbit.
https://spacenews.com/weather-scrubs-spacex-commercial-crew-launch/
Wątek: [SpaceNews] NASA delays SpaceX commercial crew test flight to February (Przeczytany 16317 razy)