The second attempt of the history making mission by NASA and SpaceX was successfully taken place on 30th May 2020. It’s the very first time in 9 years that NASA astronauts are being sent on a mission to the space on American soil and on American equipment.
The first attempt of the mission which was on 27th May 2020 was scrubbed due to the bad weather. As a result of that the officials set 30th as their date of the 2nd attempt. But this time The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley in the ‘Crew Dragon Spacecraft’ was successfully launched. They took off from the Kennedy Space Center’s launch Pad 39A at 3:22 p.m. EDT.
Even though the officials could launch the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and the Crew Dragon Spacecraft, at the beginning of the day unfavourable weather conditions occurred.
“We looked at the weather. It didn’t look great, but we looked at the different options that were out there. And we realized how important it was to step through this carefully, weigh the readiness of the hardware and very carefully assess the situation. And be able to clear the gates and milestones along the way,” the manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Kathy Lueders stated.
After the U.S. Air Force 45th Weather squadron declaring the condition as fine, the rocket took off at the scheduled time. Launch Weather Officer Mike McAleenan played a key role there.
President Donald Trump attended the occasion following the 1st day’s disappointment.
12 minutes in to the flight, the Crew dragon Spacecraft separated from the SpaceX rocket. SpaceX Chief Engineer Bala Ramamurthy and the crew members; Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley had a conversation after the separation.
- Bala: Dragon, chief engineer on Dragon-to-Ground. Bob, Doug, on behalf of the entire launch team, thanks for flying with Falcon 9 today. We hope you enjoyed the ride and wish you a great mission.
- Behnken: Thanks, Bala. Congratulations to you and the entire team on the first human ride for Falcon 9. And it was incredible. Appreciate all the hard work and thanks for the great ride to space.
- Hurley: Proud of you guys and the rest of the team. Thank you so much for what you’ve done for us today, putting America back into low-Earth orbit from the Florida coast.
After arriving in the orbit, Crew Dragon commenced a pursuit of 19 hours. It started off with a phase burn and the first manual test of the mission.