For the first time since 2011, NASA astronauts will once again return to space from U.S.
Veteran astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley will rendezvous with the International Space Station after they lift off May 27, 2020, from the Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. To get there, they'll ride a Crew Dragon spacecraft propelled into orbit by a Falcon 9 rocket, both designed and manufactured by SpaceX, the organization founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk.
If all goes well, this mission will make SpaceX the first private company to put astronauts into space. During a series of virtual press conferences held Friday, May 1, Bridenstine - and other key figures representing both NASA and SpaceX - spoke about the Crew Dragon's unprecedented task.
Bridenstine told the media. We see a day when Russian cosmonauts can launch on American rockets and American astronauts can launch on Russian rockets. The Crew Dragon aced a dress rehearsal in March 2019 - when it left Merritt Island on the nose of a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket and autonomously docked with the International Space Station.