SpaceX Is About to Launch a Historic Mission With Actual People on Board Crew Dragon

Behnken (left) and Hurley (right), wearing SpaceX spacesuits. (SpaceX)



MORGAN MCFALL-JOHNSEN, BUSINESS INSIDER
27 JAN 2020

SpaceX is poised to launch its first astronauts into space this spring: Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.

Their flight on the company's Crew Dragon spaceship will mark the first time an American spacecraft has carried NASA astronauts since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011.

Behnken and Hurley's liftoff is expected to launch a new era of US spaceflight, since it will allow NASA to stop relying on Russian launch systems to get astronauts into space. It will probably also make the two astronauts the first to ever fly a commercial spacecraft.

"Bob and I were lucky enough to be selected together," Hurley told The Atlantic in September. "As we get closer to launch, things in the last year have actually been pretty hectic. We've been spending increasing amounts of time in California, because that's where most of the work is being done for Dragon."

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/these-are-the-first-2-astronauts-who-will-fly-on-spacex-s-historic-crew-dragon?perpetual=yes&limitstart=1