on Wednesday, 27 may at 23:33 Moscow time, the American company SpaceX is going to launch the boosters of the Falcon 9 with a manned spacecraft Crew Dragon. At last the crew will include two NASA astronaut Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley. If their mission is successful, the U.S. space Agency will decide on the certification of Crew Dragon for regular missions to the ISS.
the Upcoming flight of the launch vehicle received the designation DEMO-2. It will be the first manned mission of a spacecraft developed SpaceX. It is worth noting that the first demonstration flight Crew Dragon called DEMO-1 was held 2-8 March 2019. He passed without a crew in an automatic mode.
the 49-year-old Robert Behnken and 53-year-old Douglas Hurley will test the ship’s systems during the flight, docking with the ISS and return to Earth. Experienced astronauts for the space flight will be the third in his career, reports TASS.
Behnken and Hurley will go into space for the first time since 2011. Then manned Shuttle flights were discontinued.
Robert Behnken was the lead test engineer in the multi-purpose fighter F-22. Only the pilot has mastered more than 25 types of aircraft, and the total length of its deposits on the aircraft is more than a thousand hours. Subsequently, he was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate and has passed a course of General space training. Just Behnken spent in space 28 days and 12 hours, including outside of the space station.
Douglas Hurley initially served as a fighter pilot and test pilot. He has mastered more than 25 types of aircraft and the total length of the plaque — more than 5.5 thousand hours. He later became a NASA astronaut, and even worked with the cosmonaut training Center named after Yury Gagarin. Douglas Hurley was the pilot of Atlantis, which has completed the flight of the Shuttle.
