Behind the rope, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine (left) and Deputy Administrator Jim Morhard pause for a photo with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken (left) and Douglas Hurley inside the Astronaut Crew Quarters in the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 30, 2020, ahead of the agency’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off at 3:22 p.m. EDT from historic Launch Complex 39A. Behnken and Hurley are the first astronauts to launch to the International Space Station from U.S. soil since the end of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011. Part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, this will be SpaceX’s final flight test, paving the way for the agency to certify the crew transportation system for regular, crewed flights to the orbiting laboratory.
Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
May 30, 2020