NASA teases us with new pictures of astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley performing “suit-up procedures” at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. In other words, they tested the suits in various scenarios, such as dry runs, launch, and even emergency events, walking through every step required before launching into space on the Falcon 9 rocket towards the International Space Station. Read more for a video, additional pictures and information.
While manned missions to the Moon and Mars may still be years away, NASA JPL has already set the Mars 2020 mission’s launch window for the rover on July 17, 2020. If the launch goes as planned, the rover is set to land on Mars by February 18, 2021, in search of ancient habitable conditions on the planet and microbial life, while collecting rock samples to study for biological signatures.
“”The training provided an opportunity for the integrated team to dry run all of the activities, procedures and communication that will be exercised on launch day when a Crew Dragon spacecraft launches on a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A in Florida,” said NASA’s statement.
