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What The Crew Dragon Mission Means For American Space Exploration

NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley, left, and Robert Behnken, wearing SpaceX spacesuits, give their families virtual hugs as they prepare to depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Launch Complex 39A to board the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Demo-2 mission launch, Wednesday, May 27, 2020, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
(NASA/Bill Ingalls)
NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley, left, and Robert Behnken, wearing SpaceX spacesuits, give their families virtual hugs as they prepare to depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Launch Complex 39A to board the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Demo-2 mission launch, Wednesday, May 27, 2020, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission is the first launch with astronauts of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. The test flight serves as an end-to-end demonstration of SpaceX’s crew transportation system. Behnken and Hurley are scheduled to launch at 4:33 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, May 27, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. A new era of human spaceflight is set to begin as American astronauts once again launch on an American rocket from American soil to low-Earth orbit for the first time since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will have to wait a little longer to blast off into orbit. Bad weather delayed the launch of their historic mission yesterday- but when they do lift off they will be the first astronauts in nearly a decade to launch from US soil. 

What does this mission mean for the next generation of astronauts and for American aspirations to explore the far reaches of space? And what impact did the pandemic have on spectators' plans to watch this historic launch? 

Joining Intersection to talk about the return to human space flight from the United States are WMFE space reporter Brendan Byrne and UCF planetary scientist Addie Dove.