NASA, SpaceX pick May 27 to resume astronaut launches in US

[TexasTowelie]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA and SpaceX have picked May 27 for resuming astronaut launches from the U.S. after nine years of complete Russian dependence.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced the launch date Friday. Astronauts haven’t launched into orbit from the U.S. since NASA’s last space shuttle flight in 2011. SpaceX aims to end the drought by sending two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.

“On May 27, @NASA will once again launch American astronauts on American rockets from American soil!” Bridenstine tweeted.

Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken will blast off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, departing from the same Kennedy Space Center launch pad used by shuttle Atlantis in July 2011, as well as the Apollo moonshots a half-century ago. Hurley served as pilot on that last shuttle mission and will be the spacecraft commander for SpaceX's Dragon crew capsule.

Read more: https://www.itemonline.com/cnhi_network/nasa-spacex-pick-may-27-to-resume-astronaut-launches-in-us/article_3a99ab1a-8180-11ea-bdc2-17b32a320677.html
(Huntsville Item)

[RT Atlanta]

1. excited and looking forward to this

I wish them safe travels and am hopeful this will be a good re-engagement for flights from US soil.

The flight gap from Apollo-Soyuz to Columbia's first flight was 6 years; this one has will be 9 years (last flight of Atlantis to hopefully the flight taking place in a month).