BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. (WESH) – If SpaceX has its way, the Space Coast is just two months from the return of astronaut launches.
The company has, for the first time, publicly targeted the month of May.
NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are in the final stages of training. They’ve walked the access arm to their Dragon capsule on the pad, and they’ve spent years practicing in the spacecraft or its simulators.
The president of the company that builds the capsule and its Falcon 9 launcher said May is the target month for SpaceX’s first launch of astronauts after it passed its final test launch.
“I think getting the NASA team and the SpaceX team on the same page going forward and kind of walking through all the decisions that you have to make getting ready for this flight is a big milestone,” Behnken said.
It would be the first launch of any astronauts from the Space Coast since 2011. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said Tuesday the company is gunning for May; the most recently known internal schedules are showing May 7 as a possible launch date.
The launch might be the biggest event on the Space Coast in a long time.
NASA has to approve any plans that SpaceX makes and is not saying whether a May launch is in the cards.
The space agency wants to make sure that the two astronauts are ready for what could be a monthslong stay at the space station.
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