SpaceX will send NASA astronauts to the International Space Station on May 27, after the lift-off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. As they will be helping the crew that’s already onboard of the space station, they will have more work to do than initially expected. The mission will last for over a month, instead of just a week as it was first planned.
Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are the lucky astronauts that will be carried into space by SpaceX after about three weeks.
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine declared the following:
We currently are supporting the station with the bare minimum,
Without the presence of Behnken and Hurley, we otherwise would likely defer such an operation until additional NASA crew members are available.
But let’s see in more detail who the two astronauts are:
Robert Louis “Bob” Behnken is the younger guy, being born on July 28, 1970 (49 years old). Behnken has some very prestigious positions: astronaut of NASA, officer of the United States Air Force, and also former Chief for the Astronaut Office. Behnken has a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, and he’s also Colonel in the U.S. Air Force. Behnken has a riche resume of over 1,000 flight hours in 25 different aircraft.
Douglas Gerald Hurley was born on October 21, 1966. He is both engineer and NASA astronaut. He flew in July 2011 during the final flight of the Space Shuttle program (as a pilot for STS-135 ). Hurley also piloted Space Shuttle mission STS-127, which had its launch in 2009. He was also the first Marine that flew with the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet. Hurley has graduated Owego Free Academy from the Tulane University, and there’s also worth mentioning that he has the ranks of Colonel in the United States Marine Corps.
It’s nice to see that SpaceX can work so efficiently with NASA, as both of the two space agencies are considering the idea of putting humans on Mars one day.
