NASA says that the astronauts liable for SpaceX’s first crewed Dragon take a look at flight will likely be awarded the Congressional Area Medal of Honor for his or her bravery.
Kamala Harris, the sitting US Vice President and Chair of the Nationwide Area Council, will bestow the exceptionally uncommon awards to former NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken in a ceremony on Tuesday, January thirty first. NASA will stream the occasion reside on all social media platforms and its personal NASA TV service, starting round 4:15 pm EST (21:15 UTC).
Since Congress approved the Congressional Area Medal of Honor in 1969, it has been awarded simply 28 instances. Simply 11 went to dwelling astronauts, whereas the opposite 17 had been awarded posthumously: to the three NASA astronauts killed within the 1967 Apollo 1 accident and the 14 astronauts killed within the Area Shuttle’s 1986 Challenger catastrophe and 2003 Columbia catastrophe. Former President George W. Bush awarded the newest medal to Robert L. Crippen, the primary Area Shuttle pilot, in 2006.
NASA notes that “regardless of the medal’s title, the President awards this medal based mostly upon suggestions from the NASA Administrator,” indicating that Administrator Invoice Nelson chosen Behnken and Hurley for the dignity. It’s tough to think about a pair of astronauts extra worthy of ending the 16-year hole because the final Area Medal of Honor was awarded.
Previous to the Dragon take a look at flight they are going to be honored for, Behnken and Hurley had storied careers within the US navy and at NASA. Bob Behnken earned a PhD in mechanical engineering from Caltech in 1997 and finally turned a lead flight take a look at engineer within the US Air Drive’s F-22 Raptor program. He was chosen as a NASA astronaut candidate in 2000 and flew two Area Shuttle missions in 2008 and 2010. In 2012, Behnken was chosen to steer NASA’s prestigious Astronaut Workplace, and did so for 3 years earlier than he started coaching for the Business Crew Program.
Doug Hurley earned a Bachelor’s diploma in civil engineering in 1988 and obtained a fee within the US Marine Corps upon graduating. He made three deployments as an F/A-18 pilot and later turned a Navy Take a look at Pilot in 1997. Hurley was “the primary Marine pilot to fly the F/A-18 E/F Tremendous Hornet” and has expertise flying greater than 25 kinds of plane. He was additionally chosen to grow to be an astronaut in 2000 and flew on two Area Shuttle flights, together with the Shuttle’s one hundred and thirty fifth and remaining mission in 2011.
In 2018, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley had been assigned to SpaceX’s first crewed Crew Dragon take a look at flight. Leaning on their histories as pilots and engineers, they labored with SpaceX for a number of years earlier than the corporate’s historic astronaut launch debut. Their enter lives on at this time all through SpaceX’s Dragon program, from the spacecraft’s design and inside to how the corporate trains personal and public astronauts.
On Could thirtieth, 2020, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley turned the primary NASA astronauts to elevate off from US soil because the Area Shuttle’s 2011 retirement and the primary astronauts in historical past to journey a privately-developed rocket and spacecraft into orbit. Defying expectations, Crew Dragon beat Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to the punch and carried out (roughly) flawlessly all through its Demo-2 take a look at flight.
NASA was so assured in SpaceX – and inspired by Crew Dragon’s preliminary efficiency – that Demo-2 was prolonged from a minimal length of a few week to 62 days. After two months in orbit, Crew Dragon efficiently undocked from the Worldwide Area Station (ISS), deorbited, reentered Earth’s environment, deployed parachutes, and gently splashed down within the Gulf of Mexico – safely returning Behnken and Hurley to Earth.
The extremely profitable take a look at flight allowed NASA to quickly certify Dragon. Lower than 4 months later, one other Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted on a Falcon 9 rocket on SpaceX’s first operational astronaut ferry mission for NASA. Greater than two years later, Boeing’s Starliner stays uncertified, and Crew Dragon continues to be the one spacecraft able to sustaining the presence of NASA astronauts on the ISS. SpaceX is on monitor to launch its sixth consecutive astronaut ferry mission – Crew-6 – no sooner than February twenty sixth.
The strain on SpaceX and the significance of Crew Dragon to NASA can’t be overstated. In a nontrivial sense, NASA and SpaceX wouldn’t have Crew Dragon’s important – and at present irreplaceable – capabilities with out the work accomplished and dangers taken by Behnken and Hurley. Had both astronaut made a major mistake or faltered throughout Dragon’s Demo-2 take a look at flight, the state of US human spaceflight might be considerably worse off than it’s at this time. As a substitute, the astronauts performed their elements to perfection and helped catapult SpaceX, NASA, and the world into a brand new period of business human spaceflight.
Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley retired from NASA in 2021 and 2022, respectively. They’ll obtain the twenty ninth and thirtieth Congressional Area Medals of Honor.