WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley (left) and Robert Behnken depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 27, 2020, in preparation for transport to Launch Complex 39A ahead of NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission. The launch, initially scheduled for May 27, was scrubbed due to unfavorable weather conditions. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off from Kennedy’s historic Launch Complex 39A at 3:22 p.m. EDT on Saturday, May 30. Behnken and Hurley are the first astronauts to launch to the International Space Station from U.S. soil since the end of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011. Part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, Demo-2 is SpaceX’s final flight test, paving the way for the agency to certify the crew transportation system for regular, crewed flights to the orbiting laboratory.