NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon will leave the International Space Station (ISS) on August 1, 2020, according to a tweet from NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine.
For the uninitiated, the duo was part of the historic SpaceX Demo-2 mission - the first private spacecraft to transport humans from Earth to the space center.
The spacecraft Crew Dragon Endeavor (C206) was launched from Earth on May 30 using a reusable Falcon 9 rocket. Now after spending almost two months on board the ISS, astronauts will return home them on August 2. For information, the flight time for the inaugural trip was approximately 19 hours.
However, Bridenstine also added that weather conditions near the arrival date may change the schedule.
As you may know, Demo-2 was a test mission to test the feasibility of human crewed spaceflight using the Crew Dragon spacecraft. NASA and SpaceX have the first operational flight, known as the Crew-1, scheduled for later this year, where four astronauts will go into space.
If all goes well, plans include sending tourists on space flights by 2021/2022. However, this seems too far-fetched for the ears, because for many of us, even going out of the house in a feat. Nevertheless, SpaceX led by Elon Musk is working hard to introduce a new type of tourism into our lives.
Either way, we'll keep you posted on the details of Crew Dragon's return trip.
via Engadget
