SpaceX: Crew Dragon's first manned flight will take place on May 27

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SpaceX takes advantage of its advance over Boeing by designing its Crew Dragon space capsule, becoming the first NASA partner to send American astronauts from the USA in almost 10 years. Takeoff scheduled for May 27.

After years of preparation and testing, each more demanding than the other, SpaceX will be able to operate its first manned flight on behalf of Nasa on May 27, when the Crew Dragon capsule will transport the astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station.

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This launch – which will be carried out using a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida – marks the return of the American manned missions, after almost ten years of sending American astronauts into space aboard Russian Soyuz capsules.

The emotion will be great on the launch pad that day, especially for Doug Hurley who was a pilot during the last mission of the American space shuttle on July 8, 2011. At the time, he left with his team for a 13-day supply and maintenance mission on the International Space Station. With this experience, he will be the commander of this first manned SpaceX mission and will pilot the shuttle.

Mission under high surveillance, with a rowdy preparation

The two astronauts could spend a maximum of 110 days on board the Station, while NASA and SpaceX explained that they still have a few points to settle and validate before firing. It is therefore not impossible that the launch date will ultimately be postponed, but the fact that a specific date has been set by Jim Bridenstine, the boss of Nasa, testifies to the confidence of the two partners to succeed in quickly operating this long-awaited launch.

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Of course, one of these uncertainties concerns the preparation of such an event in the midst of a health crisis. Especially since several NASA operational centers have been partially closed to reduce the risk of contagion to Covid-19, teleworking is currently the rule within the agency. But once again, the fact that NASA and SpaceX took the lead shows that solutions had to be devised to allow the technical teams to prepare for this mission under the best possible conditions despite this exceptional situation.

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