Crew Dragon lifts off carrying astronauts to the Space Station
MAY 30, 2020–At 3:22 p.m. today, Crew Dragon successfully lifted off aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket carrying astronauts Bob Benkhen and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station. Now at T+ 1 hour 30 minutes, the mission is proceeding smoothly.
Dragon’s launch today comes after an aborted launch on May 27, where weather caused a scrub. Today’s launch experienced much better weather conditions, with a 70% go for launch probability, compared to 40% last time.
The DM-2 launch is historic as it is the return of American astronauts on American rockets from American soil to space. The last U.S. crewed mission was STS-135, aboard the shuttle Atlantis in 2011. Atlantis was viewed by huge crowds – an estimated one million spectators. Due to global circumstances, DM-2 had a much more virtual crowd, yet massively outdid Atlantis with over ten million viewers.
In the current transfer phase of the mission, there are five burns that must be done over the course of 19 hours. The first burn, a phase correction burn, was completed about 20 minutes ago. There are four more burns remaining.
Right now, Dragon is entering a manual-control phase where astronauts Bob and Doug test the manual controls in a far-field pointing maneuver. We will update as the launch progresses.
Go Crew Dragon, Go Bob and Doug, and Go Commercial Crew!
