NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley returned from orbit with their senses of humor intact.
The duo splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Pensacola, Florida, Sunday (Aug. 2), wrapping up SpaceX’s historic Demo-2 mission to the Intercontinental Space Station. Behnken and Hurley experienced a little bit of time to destroy as they waited for restoration crews to fish out and inspect their Crew Dragon capsule, so they made a decision to make a few phone calls.
“Five hours in the past, we had been in a spaceship, bobbing around, generating prank satellite mobile phone phone calls to whoever we could get a hold of. Which was variety of fun, by the way,” Hurley reported throughout a welcome-house ceremony in Houston, the place NASA’s astronaut corps is based mostly.
Full coverage: SpaceX’s historic Demo-2 Crew Dragon astronaut exam flight
He was being severe about producing these jokey phone calls we have outdoors affirmation.
“I gained just one of these calls at the flight director console. It started off with an opening line like ‘Hi, it’s Doug and Bob, and we are in the ocean.’ I believe my reaction was, ‘Yeah, I can see that,'” NASA flight director Anthony Vareha reported through Twitter.
Behnken’s spouse, fellow NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, acquired a get in touch with from the recently returned Crew Dragon as nicely.
“On my telephone it stated ‘Spam Threat.’ Glad I answered in any case!” McArthur tweeted yesterday.
I recieved 1 of these phone calls at the flight director console. It began with an opening line like “Hello it is Doug and Bob and we are in the ocean.” I imagine my reaction was “Yeah, I can see that.” https://t.co/Posn3RdQM9August 3, 2020
Just! On my telephone it said “Spam Risk”. Happy I answered anyway! https://t.co/1WmMpQAL3PAugust 3, 2020
Demo-2 alone was no joke, of training course, and Behnken and Hurley took treatment of enterprise throughout their nine weeks in room. The effective completion of that landmark examination flight keeps SpaceX on program to fly its 1st operational crewed mission to the place station in late September, offered analyses of Demo-2 information expose no pink flags.
That coming mission, acknowledged as Crew-1, will be the to start with of at minimum 6 that SpaceX will fly to and from the orbiting lab less than a $2.6 billion NASA contract. Crew-1 will element four astronauts: NASA’s Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi.
The second contracted flight, Crew-2, is qualified to launch in spring 2021. It will use the very same capsule that flew on Demo-2, which Hurley and Behnken dubbed Endeavour. And there is certainly one more link to the exam flight as properly: McArthur is a person of the four Crew-2 astronauts. (The other 3 are NASA’s Shane Kimbrough, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and the European House Agency’s Thomas Pesquet.)
Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018 illustrated by Karl Tate), a e-book about the lookup for alien lifestyle. Abide by him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Stick to us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
