Crew Dragon Demo-2
Crew Dragon Demo-2 was the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft, named Endeavour, launched on May 30, 2020 on a Falcon 9 rocket, and carried NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station in the first crewed orbital spaceflight launched from the United States since the final Space Shuttle mission in 2011, and the first ever operated by a commercial provider. Demo-2 was also the first two-person orbital spaceflight launched from the United States since STS-4 in 1982. Demo-2 completed the validation of crewed spaceflight operations using SpaceX hardware and received human-rating certification for the spacecraft, including astronaut testing of Crew Dragon capabilities on orbit.
Docking was autonomously controlled by the Crew Dragon, but monitored by the flight crew in case manual intervention became necessary. The spacecraft soft docked with the International Space Station on May 31, 2020, nineteen hours after launch. Following soft capture, 12 hooks were closed to complete a hard capture 11 minutes later. Hurley and Behnken worked alongside the crew of Expedition 63 for 62 days, including four spacewalks by Behnken with fellow American astronaut Chris Cassidy to replace batteries brought up by a Japanese cargo vehicle. Endeavour autonomously undocked from the station on August 1, 2020, and thirteen hours later returned the astronauts to Earth in the first water landing by astronauts since 1975.
Background
After the Space Shuttle program was brought to an end in 2011, NASA no longer had a spacecraft system capable of sending humans to space. As a result, it was forced to fly its astronauts to the International Space Station aboard the Russian Soyuz space vehicle, at a cost of up to US$80 million per astronaut. As an alternative, NASA contracted with private companies such as SpaceX for the Commercial Crew Program, which is expected to cost 50% less than Soyuz once in regular operation. Up to the launch, NASA has awarded a total of US$3.1 billion for the development of the Dragon 2. The Demo-2 mission was SpaceX's last major test before NASA certified it for regular crewed spaceflights. Prior to that, SpaceX had sent twenty cargo missions to the ISS, but never a crewed one. Boeing was separately working on crewed orbital spaceflight under the same NASA effort.Crew
Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken were announced as the primary crew on August 3, 2018. Both astronauts are veterans of the Space Shuttle program, and the Demo-2 flight was the third trip to space for both of them. The lead flight director for this mission was Zebulon Scoville.NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren was the sole backup crew member for the flight, backing up both Hurley and Behnken for the mission.
Insignia and livery
The mission insignia was designed by artist Andrew Nyberg from Brainerd, Minnesota, a nephew of spacecraft commander Hurley. The insignia features the logos of the Commercial Crew Program, Falcon 9, Crew Dragon, and the red chevron of NASA's "meatball" insignia. Also depicted are the American flag and a graphic representation of the ISS. The words NASA, SPACEX, FIRST CREWED FLIGHT and DM-2 are printed around the border along with the surnames of the astronauts. The insignia outline is in the shape of the Crew Dragon capsule.The Falcon 9 rocket used to launch Endeavour displayed NASA's "worm" insignia, the first time the logo had been used officially since it was retired in 1992. NASA TV and media coverage of the launch was branded as "Launch America", with its own logo.
The SpaceX patch shows the top of the company's spacesuit, with the ISS and North America portrayed on the helmet shield and a white star denoting the launch site at Cape Canaveral. Behind the suit are the American flag, and around the insignia's black border SPACEX DRAGON and NASA DEMO-2 are written in white, alongside the names of the two astronauts at the bottom; with a cloverleaf between the two names.
Pre-launch processing
NASA calculated the loss-of-crew probability for the test flight as 1-in-276, better than the commercial crew program requirement threshold of 1-in-270. The 1-in-276 number included mitigations to reduce the risk, such as on-orbit inspections of the Crew Dragon spacecraft once it was docked to the space station to look for damage from micrometeoroids and orbital debris. NASA pegged the overall risk of a loss of mission as 1-in-60, covering scenarios where the Crew Dragon does not reach the space station as planned, but the crew safely returns to Earth.The Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission was initially planned for launch in July 2019 as part of the Commercial Crew Program contract with a crew of two on a 14-day test mission to the ISS. The Crew Dragon capsule from the Crew Dragon Demo-1 mission was destroyed while its SuperDraco thrusters were undergoing static fire testing on April 20, 2019, ahead of its planned use for the in-flight abort test. SpaceX traced the cause of the anomaly to a component that leaked oxidizer into the high-pressure helium lines, which then solidified and damaged a valve. The valves were since switched for burst discs to prevent another anomaly. On January 19, 2020, a Crew Dragon capsule successfully completed an in-flight abort test. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said on April 9, 2020, that he was "fairly confident" that astronauts could fly to the ISS aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship at the end of May or in early June 2020, pending final parachute tests, data reviews and a training schedule that could escape major impacts from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
On April 17, 2020, NASA and SpaceX announced the launch date as May 27, 2020. The arrival of the Crew Dragon will have raised the station's crew size from three to five. Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will have performed duties and conducted experiments as crew on board the ISS for several months. Hurley and Behnken were expected to live and work aboard the space station for two or three months, and then return to Earth for a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean east of Cape Canaveral. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine urged space enthusiasts not to travel to the Kennedy Space Center to view the launch and asked people to instead watch the launch on television or online. Bridenstine explained that maintenance crews were working in cohesive shifts, to mitigate workers' exposure to SARS-CoV-2. On May 1, 2020, SpaceX successfully demonstrated the Mark 3 parachute system, a critical milestone for the mission approval. Crew Dragon Demo-2 marked the first crewed United States spaceflight mission not to include the presence of the public at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the mission was previously delayed, the Visitor Complex opened as of May 28, 2020, with limited capacity for publicly viewing the launch. Admissions sold out almost immediately. To engage the public, notably the Class of 2020, who were unable to attend their graduations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, both NASA and SpaceX invited students and graduates to submit their photos to be flown to the ISS.
Behnken and Hurley arrived at Kennedy Space Center on May 20, 2020, in preparation for the launch. On May 21, 2020, the Falcon 9 rocket was rolled out to the launch pad, and a static fire test was conducted on May 22, 2020, a major milestone ahead of the launch. The mission used a Tesla Model X to transport Hurley and Behnken to LC-39A.
Launch attempts
An official launch weather forecast for Dragon Crew Demo-2 by the 45th Weather Squadron of the U.S. Space Force, for the original launch time at 20:33:33UTC on May 27, 2020, predicted a 50% probability of favorable conditions. The launch was scrubbed at T−16:53 minutes due to thunderstorms and light rain in the area caused by Tropical Storm Bertha. The second launch attempt also faced a 50% probability of favorable conditions, but was successful and took place on May 30, 2020, at 19:22:45UTC. The other launch windows were May 31, 2020, at 19:00:07UTC, with a 60% probability of favorable conditions and June 2, 2020, at 18:13UTC with a 70% probability of favorable conditions.Launch attempt summary
''Note: times are local to the launch site.''Mission
Launch and orbit
Three days after the first launch attempt was scrubbed, the Crew Dragon Endeavour launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A at 19:22:45UTC on May 30, 2020. The first stage booster landed autonomously on the floating barge Of Course I Still Love You, which was prepositioned in the Atlantic Ocean. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, with their wives, were at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to see the launch attempt on May 27, 2020, and returned for launch on May 30, 2020. The launch live stream was watched online by 3 million people on NASA feeds, and the SpaceX feed peaked at 4.1 million viewers. NASA estimated roughly 10 million people watched on various online platforms, approximately 150,000 people gathered on Florida's space coast in addition to an unknown number watching on television.Hurley and Behnken described Falcon 9 as a "very pure flying machine", and the ride on SpaceX Merlin engines as much smoother than with Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters. Hurley said that the Merlin Vacuum upper-stage engine was rougher than Space Shuttle Main Engines, "kind of like driving fast on a dirt road". They revealed the name of their Crew Dragon capsule 206, Endeavour, shortly after launch, reviving the tradition from the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs where astronauts would name their spacecraft. It was the third U.S. spacecraft named Endeavour, after, built in 1991 to replace, which was destroyed in 1986, and the Apollo command and service module used for the Apollo 15 mission in 1971. Hurley said that they chose Endeavour as both his and Behnken's first flights to space were on the Shuttle Endeavour.
Each crew member brought along a toy from their family; an Apatosaurus dinosaur named "Tremor" and a Ty plush toy. As in past space missions, the plush toy was used as an indication of zero gravity for the strapped-in astronauts. Behnken and Hurley said, "That was a super cool thing for us to get a chance to do for both of our sons, who I hope are super excited to see their toys floating around with us on board".
The crew were awakened on the second day of the flight with Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan". NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the Gemini program, and first used music to wake up a flight crew during Apollo 15. Each track is specially chosen, often by the astronauts' families, and usually has a special meaning to an individual member of the crew, or is applicable to their daily activities.