Crew Dragon Demo-2
Crew Dragon Demo-2 (officially Crew Demo-2, SpaceX Demo-2, or Demonstration Mission-2) was the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft, named Endeavour, launched on 30 May 2020 on a Falcon 9 rocket, and carried NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken to the International Space Station in the first crewed orbital spaceflight launched from the United States since the final Space Shuttle mission in 2011, and the first ever operated by a commercial provider. Demo-2 was also the first two-person orbital spaceflight launched from the United States since STS-4 in 1982. Demo-2 completed the validation of crewed spaceflight operations using SpaceX hardware and received human-rating certification for the spacecraft, including astronaut testing of Crew Dragon capabilities on orbit.
Clockwise from top to bottom: Falcon 9 launches Endeavour from LC-39A, Endeavour approaches the ISS, Splashdown and recovery of Endeavour | |
Names | Crew Demo-2 SpaceX Demo-2 Demonstration Mission-2 |
---|---|
Mission type | ISS crew transport |
Operator | SpaceX |
COSPAR ID | 2020-033A |
SATCAT no. | 45623 |
Mission duration | 63 days, 23 hours and 25 minutes (achieved) |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft | Crew Dragon Endeavour |
Spacecraft type | Crew Dragon |
Manufacturer | SpaceX |
Launch mass | 12,519 kg (27,600 lb) |
Landing mass | 9,616 kg (21,200 lb) |
Crew | |
Members | |
Expedition | Expedition 63 |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 30 May 2020, 19:22:45 UTC |
Rocket | Falcon 9 Block 5 (B1058.1) |
Launch site | Kennedy Space Center, LC-39A |
Contractor | SpaceX |
End of mission | |
Recovered by | GO Navigator |
Landing date | 2 August 2020, 18:48:06 UTC |
Landing site | Gulf of Mexico |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric orbit |
Regime | Low Earth orbit |
Inclination | 51.66° |
Docking with ISS | |
Docking port | Harmony forward |
Docking date | 31 May 2020, 14:27 UTC |
Undocking date | 1 August 2020, 23:35 UTC |
Time docked | 62 days, 9 hours, 8 minutes |
NASA (left) and SpaceX (right) insignia Behnken (left) and Hurley (right) |
Docking was autonomously controlled by the Crew Dragon, but monitored by the flight crew in case manual intervention became necessary. The spacecraft soft docked with the International Space Station on 31 May 2020, nineteen hours after launch. Following soft capture, 12 hooks were closed to complete a hard capture 11 minutes later. Hurley and Behnken worked alongside the crew of Expedition 63 for 62 days, including four spacewalks by Behnken with fellow American astronaut Chris Cassidy to replace batteries brought up by a Japanese cargo vehicle. Endeavour autonomously undocked from the station on 1 August 2020 and thirteen hours later returned the astronauts to Earth in the first water landing by astronauts since 1975.