Quick Update: Today it is done, the launch was successful, Liftoff video and the highlights from the launch day can be watched below.
Crew Dragon Demo-2 Flight Day Highlights
Nearly after a decade SpaceX and NASA together are able to send humans to space from the American soil, the last time a spaceship carrying humans was flown from the United States was in 2011.
As of this writing, it is less then T-1hour left when SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship will be launched into space with the help of the Falcon-9 rocket (live demo video below).
The Dragon spacecraft is taking two astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station (ISS), where they will join the existing NASA astronaut crew consisting of Chris Cassidy, Anatoly Ivanishin, and Ivan Vagner.
The Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission will launch from the Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida — to move the NASA astronauts to and from the launch pad, NASA is now using two Tesla Model X SUVs as we saw a few hours ago in the following video from the Kennedy Space Center.
The Crew Dragon Demo-2 flight does not carry a lot of cargo despite the two human astronauts but has two special payloads onboard — two indestructible double-sided paintings made from gold, brass, and aluminum, created by the American artist Tristan Eaton, he describes his feeling on his Instagram post as follows:
As an artist, I try to look at the world with a big picture view. No one gets a bigger view of our world than our brave astronauts on the ISS.
When SpaceX asked me to create art to join these astronauts in space, I wanted to make something inspirational. Looking down from space to see all of Human Kind together on this tiny planet might remind you how much history and potential we have. Yet we have so much further to go.
With this in mind, I created a series of indestructible, 2 sided paintings made from gold, brass, and aluminum to represent the duality of Human Kind, our past and our future.
With kindness, hope, and science, Human Kind has changed the world many times over. For a better future, we can do it again.
Good luck Doug & Bob!!! Stay tuned to hear about what happens with the Art when it returns to Earth in 3 months!!! #launchamerica
Tristan Eaton / Instagram
Update: Due to the bad weather the launch has been scrubbed and the next launch attempt delayed till Saturday 30th May.
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One reply on “SpaceX and NASA making history today — returning human spaceflight to the US”
Great stuff moving forward for world in technological innovations – pressing the never ending boundaries to better life.