Vice President Pence congratulates history-making NASA astronauts in call to position station

Honored to talk with American Astronauts, @AstroBehnken, @Astro_Doug, and @Astro_SEAL on the brand new time, with @SecondLady! The US is main in position all over over again and our Nation is grateful for the work they’re doing 250 miles above Earth on the @Space_Station! pic.twitter.com/DKbJ7ECQlnJune 17, 2020

A few weeks after staring at NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley proceed Earth in historic vogue, Vice President Mike Pence checked in to scrutinize how the spaceflyers are adjusting to existence in orbit.

Pence and his critical other, Karen, were level to at NASA’s Kennedy Dwelling Center in Florida for the Would possibly per chance per chance just 30 launch of SpaceX’s Demo-2 test flight, which despatched Behnken and Hurley toward the Worldwide Dwelling Place of living (ISS) aboard a Crew Dragon tablet. (President Donald Trump and his critical other, Melania, made the shuttle to KSC for the event as properly.)

Demo-2 is the first-ever crewed mission for Elon Musk’s position company, and its liftoff atop a Falcon 9 rocket became the first orbital human spaceflight to proceed from American soil since NASA grounded its position shuttle quick in July 2011.

Linked: Improbable photos of SpaceX’s 1st astronaut launch for NASA

Behnken and Hurley arrived on the ISS on Would possibly per chance per chance just 31, becoming a member of fellow NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy — the commander of the orbiting lab’s most modern Expedition 63 mission — and Russian cosmonauts Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. On Wednesday (June 17), Mike and Karen Pence held a video call with the three NASA spaceflyers, thanking them for their work and congratulating the Demo-2 crewmembers on their story success.

“To Chris Cassidy, thank you to your huge service and management,” Vice President Pence said at some level of the call, based mostly on a transcript equipped by his office. (The call became no longer broadcast on NASA TV.)

“And let me also specifically lengthen, to Bob and Doug, congratulations on making history as the first astronauts to launch on a commercially built and operated spacecraft and the first to launch on an American rocket, from American soil, in almost about 10 years,” Pence added. “Or no longer it is huge to scrutinize you all. And congratulations on a a success mission.”

“Thanks, Mr. Vice President,” Hurley answered. “Or no longer it is a huge honor for Bob and I to contain been glorious a minute segment of the Industrial Crew Program launch of Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon to the Worldwide Dwelling Place of living, going on three weeks ago. An unimaginable lunge. An unimaginable rendezvous. And glorious jubilant to be up here now with Chris, getting the day to day work carried out here on position station.”

In photos: SpaceX’s historic Demo-2 test flight with astronauts

Cassidy, Behnken and Hurley all flew on position shuttle missions, and Pence asked the Demo-2 duo how a Falcon 9-Crew Dragon lunge compares to one aboard the enduring NASA position airplane.

“Effectively, sir, it became noticeably assorted,” Hurley said. “The critical ingredient that struck me became the blueprint in which you felt all the pieces interior the rocket barely a bit more than you doubtlessly did must you were in shuttle. The solid rocket boosters on shuttle made it very noisy, and it became a in actual fact tough lunge for the first 2 1/2 minutes that we were below that — their energy.”

The Falcon 9 burned more without problems, he added, so the Demo-2 lunge to position wasn’t almost about as tough. 

“Nevertheless you have to per chance possibly glorious feel the air noise and the vibration so critical clearer as we were ascending into orbit,” Hurley said. “Moreover, the 2d stage became a barely a bit rougher lunge than each of us anticipated. Not as tough as the position shuttle below the solid rocket boosters, but a pretty tough lunge, barely talking. Nevertheless it surely purchased us factual where we wanted to be. It purchased us factual into the correct orbit.”

Behnken said the excellent difference will doubtlessly come on the return dwelling. The position shuttle orbiters glided down for runway landings, but Crew Dragon splashes down in the ocean, indulge in NASA’s feeble Apollo capsules did.

“The position shuttle became a pretty light lunge succor to our dwelling planet, succor to Kennedy Dwelling Center. It became a refined lunge,” Behnken said. “We’re looking ahead to a tiny bit assorted experience with the parachutes and with the splashdown in the ocean.“

Linked: Tour SpaceX’s Crew Dragon with NASA’s Demo-2 astronauts (video) 

Karen Pence crooked the astronauts’ ears as properly. She congratulated Behnken and Hurley for the Demo-2 success up to now and for seemingly setting a sequins-in-position legend with the mission’s zero-g indicator, a plush dinosaur named Tremor chosen for the job by the two astronauts’ sons. The 2nd Lady also asked the Demo-2 crewmates what suggestion they’d give to youngsters who’re attracted to rising as a lot as be astronauts, engineers or position scientists.

“Effectively, I feel segment of it must be passion,” Behnken said. “You admire, you’re by no blueprint going to forestall huge work whilst you’re no longer smitten by it. So, I feel that is what drives us to an extent, too. We’re very smitten by engineering, science and math, position. We were smitten by flying vehicles. We were smitten by trying out vehicles and [that] originate of led us down this direction. It completely doesn’t must be this valid direction. Nevertheless whilst you have to per chance possibly contain got the fervour, I glorious imagine that, as a young baby, whilst you imagine strongly in something, you have to per chance possibly excel at it whilst you’re passionate.”

Cassidy, Ivanishin and Vagner are scheduled to come succor to Earth in October, aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that carried them as a lot as orbit. Behnken and Hurley will come dwelling ahead of that, even supposing how critical sooner is unclear for the time being. NASA officials contain no longer but introduced an finish date for the Demo-2 mission, that would also last a maximum of four months from launch to splashdown. 

If all continues to head properly with Demo-2, SpaceX will make certain to launch flying NASA astronauts on operational missions to and from the ISS using Crew Dragon and the Falcon 9. The corporate holds a contract to full as a minimum six such flights, the first of which could possibly launch as early as Aug. 30.

Vice President Pence is deeply indignant by the U.S. position program. He chairs the policy-steering Nationwide Dwelling Council (NSC), which President Donald Trump reinstated in 2017. The NSC had last been packed with life in the early 1990s, at some level of the presidency of George H.W. Bush.

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Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There” (Monumental Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the see for alien existence. Put together him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Put together us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Fb.