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 around Pensacola, Florida, Sunday (Aug. 2), wrapping up SpaceX’s historic Demo-2 mission to the International Room Station. Behnken and Hurley experienced a bit of time to destroy as they waited for restoration crews to fish out and examine their Crew Dragon capsule, so they resolved to make a couple of calls.
“5 several hours in the past, we have been in a spaceship, bobbing all-around, making prank satellite phone phone calls to whoever we could get a maintain of. Which was form of entertaining, by the way,” Hurley claimed during a welcome-household ceremony in Houston, in which NASA’s astronaut corps is based mostly.
Full coverage: SpaceX’s historic Demo-2 Crew Dragon astronaut take a look at flight
He was being critical about earning these jokey phone calls we have exterior confirmation.
“I acquired a single of these calls at the flight director console. It started out with an opening line like ‘Hi, it is Doug and Bob, and we are in the ocean.’ I imagine my reaction was, ‘Yeah, I can see that,'” NASA flight director Anthony Vareha claimed via Twitter.
Behnken’s spouse, fellow NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, got a call from the newly returned Crew Dragon as nicely.
“On my telephone it claimed ‘Spam Hazard.’ Happy I answered anyway!” McArthur tweeted yesterday.
I recieved a single of these calls at the flight director console. It started with an opening line like “Hello it is Doug and Bob and we are in the ocean.” I assume my response was “Yeah, I can see that.” https://t.co/Posn3RdQM9August 3, 2020
Exactly! On my cellphone it reported “Spam Danger”. Glad I answered anyway! https://t.co/1WmMpQAL3PAugust 3, 2020
Demo-2 alone was no joke, of program, and Behnken and Hurley took care of business in the course of their 9 months in room. The effective completion of that landmark exam flight retains SpaceX on course to fly its very first operational crewed mission to the place station in late September, offered analyses of Demo-2 facts reveal no purple flags.
That coming mission, known as Crew-1, will be the to start with of at least six that SpaceX will fly to and from the orbiting lab underneath a $2.6 billion NASA agreement. Crew-1 will aspect 4 astronauts: NASA’s Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi.
The next contracted flight, Crew-2, is qualified to launch in spring 2021. It will use the identical capsule that flew on Demo-2, which Hurley and Behnken dubbed Endeavour. And there is certainly an additional link to the test flight as effectively: McArthur is one of the 4 Crew-2 astronauts. (The other three are NASA’s Shane Kimbrough, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and the European Room 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 look for for alien everyday living. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Abide by us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Fb.
