Seems like yesterday that SpaceX launched Crew Dragon to the International Space Station. In reality, it was back on May 30th from Kennedy Space Center on Falcon 9. Only one day later they docked autonomously to Station. Doug Hurly and Bob Behnken, the two NASA astronauts returned safely to earth just 3 days ago.
On August 2nd, after a 63-day stint in outer space the two astronauts landed home. The spacecraft autonomously detached from the International Space Station at 7:35 pm EDT. It was the next day at 2:48 pm EDT that it splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico.
This mission was coded Demo – 2 mission. This was the final trial for SpaceX’s human spaceflight system. Following the success of this, SpaceX will be certified by NASA for operational crew missions to and from the International Space Station. After the piles and piles of data have been reviews and certification has been awarded, the next run will be a 6-month mission. This mission is scheduled to launch in September assuming all data comes back positive. The next mission will have astronauts Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walk, and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi. They will be launching on the spacecraft Dragon.
SpaceX and Elon Musk have not been shy about their ambitious plans for space travel. What started a long time ago as something we wouldn’t necessarily look has become a real thing. This mission went a long way to securing their legitimacy of space travel.
Mars is heavy on the radar for and with the recent successes and an upcoming 6-month travel run it would not surprise me to see them make the move. NASA just launched Perseverance to the red planet so I don’t think it will be long till SpaceX is right behind them.
To ‘GetConnected’ to our newsletter, fill out the details and hit the ‘SUBSCRIBE’ button. We do require you to confirm your email.
