In this Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019 file photo, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken, right, and Doug Hurley talk to the media in front of the Crew Dragon spacecraft at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. On Friday, April 17, 2020, NASA and SpaceX announced May 27 for resuming human launches from the U.S. after nearly a decade. Hurley and Behnken will blast off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, departing from the same Kennedy Space Center launch pad used by Atlantis in July 2011. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo)
By Marcia Dunn
NASA and SpaceX have picked May 27 for resuming astronaut launches from the U.S. after nine years of complete Russian dependence.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced the launch date Friday. Astronauts haven’t launched into orbit from the U.S. since NASA’s last space shuttle flight in 2011. SpaceX aims to end the drought by sending two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
“On May 27, @NASA will once again launch American astronauts on American rockets from American soil!” Bridenstine tweeted.
Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken will blast off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, departing from the same Kennedy Space Center launch pad used by shuttle Atlantis in July 2011, as well as the Apollo moonshots a half-century ago. Hurley served as pilot on that last shuttle mission and will be the spacecraft commander for SpaceX's Dragon crew capsule.
Launch day will be a Wednesday, with a liftoff time of 4:32 p.m. EDT. It's too soon to know whether the coronavirus pandemic will prompt crowd restrictions.
Only three countries have launched people into orbit since 1961: Russia, the U.S. and China, in that order. SpaceX would be the first company.
SpaceX successfully conducted its first test flight of a Dragon crew capsule a year ago, sending the capsule — minus a crew — to the space station. The returned capsule was accidentally destroyed during ground testing at Cape Canaveral, further delaying the astronaut launch.
With the space station crew now down to three, Hurley and Behnken will spend weeks, perhaps months, helping to maintain the orbiting lab. The length of their mission is still under review, according to NASA.
NASA, meanwhile, is in the process of buying another seat on a Russian rocket. Russian Soyuz capsules have been the sole means of crew transportation to and from the space station since 2011.
SpaceX has been using Falcon 9 rockets to launch cargo to the space station in the company’s original Dragon capsules since 2012. NASA turned to private companies for deliveries once the shuttle program ended.
Boeing also is working to launch astronauts under NASA's commercial crew program, but the company's effort suffered a serious setback following last December's botched test flight. Launching without anyone on board, Boeing's Starliner capsule failed to reach the space station after ending up in the wrong orbit and came close to destruction twice because of software errors.
Boeing plans to repeat the test flight, again without astronauts, this fall.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook's lawyer says she'll sue President Donald Trump's administration to try to prevent him from firing her. Longtime Washington attorney Abbe Lowell said Tuesday that Trump “has no authority to remove” Cook. If Trump succeeds in removing Cook from the Fed's board of governors, it could erode the Fed’s political independence, which is considered critical to its ability to fight inflation because it enables the Fed to take unpopular steps like raising interest rates. The Republican president said Monday he was removing Cook because of allegations she committed mortgage fraud. Cook was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden in 2022 and says she won't step down.
Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook late Wednesday said she wouldn’t leave her post after Trump on social media called on her to resign over an accusation from one his officials that she committed mortgage fraud.
Politico's Marcia Brown breaks down the MAHA draft roadmap: industry-friendly, light on regulation, heavy on research and voluntary food policy changes.
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan says he’s “always operated within the highest legal and ethical standards” after coming under pressure following President Donald Trump’s call for him to resign.
Millions of Americans saving for retirement through 401(k) accounts could have the option of putting their money in higher-risk private equity and cryptocurrency investments.
