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Last May, NASA and SpaceX were able to successfully transport two astronauts to the International Space Station. As both agencies are now preparing for their return, NASA has announced that the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule is set to return to Earth on August 2.
Express reports NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine announced the date of return of astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on Twitter last week. “NEWS: We’re targeting Aug 1 departure of @SpaceX’s Dragon Endeavour spacecraft from the @Space_Station to bring @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug home after their historic #LaunchAmerica mission,” tweeted Bridenstine, who added that they will touchdown on Earth by August 2 after departing the day before, or depending on the weather conditions. The mission, referred to as Demo-2, successfully took off back on May 30.
The mission holds significance as it is the first time in nearly a decade that US astronauts were transported to space from American soil. For years, NASA has had to rely on Russia’s Rocosmos to send its astronauts into orbit. This has cost the agency millions per astronaut over the years. But now, NASA is looking into companies such as SpaceX and Boeing to design and develop a new kind of spacecraft, with the two companies receiving contracts under the Commercial Crew program.
While SpaceX’s spacecraft has proven successful, Boeing is set to test its Starliner spacecraft again by 2021 after a glitch prevented the spacecraft from reaching the ISS back in 2019. Once Crew Dragon, also known as Crew Endeavour, has returned to Earth, it will be preparing for its next mission, referred to as Crew-2, that is expected to launch on August 30.
Previously, SpaceX was to launch a South Korean military satellite, but last week, the agency announced that they were delaying the launch of South Korea’s ANASIS-II satellite as they wanted to re-check the hardware of the Falcon 9 booster. SpaceX has yet to decide on a new launch date for ANASIS-II to be sent into orbit. The date has yet to be confirmed with the Eastern Range, the area along the eastern coast of Florida, where rockets are usually tested.
