NASA astronauts Doug Hurley, wearing SpaceX spacesuit during a dress rehearsal ahead of the SpaceX uncrewed In-Flight Abort Test.
Hurley are slated to fly on the company’s first crewed mission, Demo-2. Demo-2 is the final major milestone for SpaceX’s human spaceflight system to be certified by NASA for operational crew missions to and from the International Space Station. Once Demo-2 is complete, and the SpaceX and NASA teams have reviewed all the data for certification, NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi have been assigned to fly on Dragon’s first six-month operational mission (Crew-1) targeted for later this year.
International Space Station Commander Jeff Williams set a new U.S. spaceflight record, passing the 520-day endurance record set for cumulative time spent in orbit.
STS-112 Mission specialist Piers Sellers is photographed on the end of the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) arm as he tethers himself to the External TV Camera Group (ETVCG) on the Destiny laboratory module (LAB1/C2-05) of the International Space Station (ISS).
Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA astronaut Shannon Walker, both Expedition 24 flight engineers, attired in their Russian Sokol launch and entry suits, occupy their seats in the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft docked to the International Space Station.