After a nine-year gap, the U.S. is once again flying humans into space on its own. The big moment was supposed to happen this past Wednesday, when NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley were scheduled to board the Crew Dragon capsule and take off from Cape Canaveral's historic Launchpad 39A atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Bad weather aborted that launch, but NASA and SpaceX are trying again today.
The event (being covered live via NASA and via National Geographic's Launch America event) is repeatedly touted in the media and in agency press releases as "the first launch from U.S. soil since 2011." It's more than that, though. It represents a new kind of public-private partnership, with SpaceX building the rocket, the capsule and even the spacesuits on behalf of NASA. It portends a future of cheaper, more efficient spaceflight — and, we enthusiasts hope, much broader and more regular access to space. To orbit, to the moon, and beyond.
Millions of people will be watching this historic flight, but few with quite the inside perspective of Nicole Stott, a veteran NASA astronaut who flew aboard the final mission of the space shuttle Discovery in 2011. Stott is an engineer, an artist and a passionate believer in the importance of space exploration. She also happens to be friends with the crew of the current flight (Crew Dragon Demo-2, or DM-2), whom she causally refers to as "Bob and Doug." I spoke with her about her thoughts ahead of today's big launch. A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.
Q: What are the key things you watch for during the launch?
A: That’s a great question. There’s my personal connection to the people, because Bob and Doug are both classmates of mine from the astronaut class of 2000, which also makes their wives, Megan and Karen, classmates of mine, so it’s really a family thing. It’s a lot more difficult to be the family member watching someone you love strap in than to be the person strapping in.
