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Crew Dragon Demo-2

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Crew Dragon Demo-2

Crew Dragon Demo-2 (officially Crew Demo-2, SpaceX Demo-2, or Demonstration Mission-2) was the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft, named Endeavour, launched on May 30, 2020 on a Falcon 9 rocket, and carried NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station in the first crewed orbital spaceflight launched from the United States since the final Space Shuttle mission in 2011, and the first ever operated by a commercial provider. Demo-2 was also the first two-person orbital spaceflight launched from the United States since STS-4 in 1982. Demo-2 completed the validation of crewed spaceflight operations using SpaceX hardware and received human-rating certification for the spacecraft, including astronaut testing of Crew Dragon capabilities on orbit.

Docking was autonomously controlled by the Crew Dragon, but monitored by the flight crew in case manual intervention became necessary. The spacecraft soft docked with the International Space Station on May 31, 2020, nineteen hours after launch. Following soft capture, 12 hooks were closed to complete a hard capture 11 minutes later. Hurley and Behnken worked alongside the crew of Expedition 63 for 62 days, including four spacewalks by Behnken with fellow American astronaut Chris Cassidy to replace batteries brought up by a Japanese cargo vehicle. Endeavour autonomously undocked from the station on August 1, 2020, and thirteen hours later returned the astronauts to Earth in the first water landing by astronauts since 1975.

After the Space Shuttle program was brought to an end in 2011, NASA no longer had a spacecraft system capable of sending humans to space. As a result, it was forced to fly its astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Russian Soyuz space vehicle, at a cost of up to US$80 million per astronaut. As an alternative, NASA contracted with private companies such as SpaceX for the Commercial Crew Program, which is expected to cost 50% less than Soyuz once in regular operation. Up to the launch, NASA has awarded a total of US$3.1 billion for the development of the Dragon 2. The Demo-2 mission was SpaceX's last major test before NASA certified it for regular crewed spaceflights. Prior to that, SpaceX had sent twenty cargo missions to the ISS, but never a crewed one. Boeing was separately working on crewed orbital spaceflight under the same NASA effort.

Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken were announced as the primary crew on August 3, 2018. Both astronauts are veterans of the Space Shuttle program, and the Demo-2 flight was the third trip to space for both of them. The lead flight director for this mission was Zebulon Scoville.

NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren was the sole backup crew member for the flight, backing up both Hurley and Behnken for the mission.

The mission insignia was designed by artist Andrew Nyberg from Brainerd, Minnesota, a nephew of spacecraft commander Hurley. The insignia features the logos of the Commercial Crew Program, Falcon 9, Crew Dragon, and the red chevron of NASA's "meatball" insignia. Also depicted are the American flag and a graphic representation of the ISS. The words NASA, SPACEX, FIRST CREWED FLIGHT and DM-2 are printed around the border along with the surnames of the astronauts. The insignia outline is in the shape of the Crew Dragon capsule.

The Falcon 9 rocket used to launch Endeavour displayed NASA's "worm" insignia, the first time the logo had been used officially since it was retired in 1992. NASA TV and media coverage of the launch was branded as "Launch America", with its own logo.

The SpaceX patch shows the top of the company's spacesuit, with the ISS and North America portrayed on the helmet shield and a white star denoting the launch site at Cape Canaveral. Behind the suit are the American flag, and around the insignia's black border SPACEX DRAGON and NASA DEMO-2 are written in white, alongside the names of the two astronauts at the bottom; with a cloverleaf between the two names.

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