{"id":86023,"date":"2020-05-25T06:01:10","date_gmt":"2020-05-25T11:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newpersian-heritage.com\/?p=86023"},"modified":"2020-05-25T06:01:55","modified_gmt":"2020-05-25T11:01:55","slug":"spacexs-1st-astronaut-launch-breaking-new-ground-for-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2020\/05\/25\/spacexs-1st-astronaut-launch-breaking-new-ground-for-style\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX’s 1st Astronaut Launch Breaking New Ground for Style"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"VOA \u2014 CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. – The first astronauts launched by SpaceX are breaking new ground for style with hip spacesuits, gull-wing Teslas and a sleek rocketship \u2014 all of it white with black trim.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The color coordinating is thanks to Elon Musk, the driving force behind both SpaceX and Tesla, and a big fan of flash and science fiction.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken like the fresh new look. They’ll catch a ride to the launch pad in a Tesla Model X electric car.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really neat, and I think the biggest testament to that is my 10-year-old son telling me how cool I am now,\u201d Hurley told The Associated Press.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSpaceX has gone all out” on the capsule’s appearance, he said. “And they\u2019ve worked equally as hard to make the innards and the displays and everything else in the vehicle work to perfection.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The true test comes Wednesday when Hurley and Behnken climb aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and, equipment and weather permitting, shoot into space. It will be the first astronaut launch from NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center since the last shuttle flight in 2011.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It will also mark the first attempt by a private company to send astronauts into orbit. Only governments \u2014 Russia, the U.S., and China \u2014 have done that.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"SpaceX<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>
SpaceX employees work on the Crew Dragon spacecraft that will astronauts to and from the International Space Station, from American soil, as part of the agency’s commercial crew Program, in Hawthorne, Calif., Oct. 10, 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The historic send-off deserves to look good, according to SpaceX. It already has a nice ring. Musk named his rocket after the \u201cStar Wars\u201d Millennium Falcon. The capsule name stems from \u201cPuff the Magic Dragon,\u201d Musk\u2019s jab at all the doubters when he started SpaceX in 2002.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

SpaceX designed and built its own suits, which are custom-fit. Safety came first. The cool \u2014 or wow \u2014 factor was a close second.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important that the suits are comfortable and also are inspiring,\u201d explained SpaceX\u2019s Benji Reed. a mission director. \u201cBut above all, it\u2019s designed to keep the crew safe.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bulky, orange ascent and entry suits worn by shuttle astronauts had their own attraction, according to Behnken, who like Hurley wore them for his two previous missions. Movies like \u201cArmageddon\u201d and \u201cSpace Cowboys\u201d stole the orange look whenever actors were \u201ctrying to pretend to be astronauts.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

On launch day, Hurley and Behnken will get ready inside Kennedy\u2019s remodeled crew quarters, which dates back to the two-man Gemini missions of the mid-1960s. SpaceX techs will help the astronauts into their one-piece, two-layer pressure suits.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hurley and Behnken will emerge through the same double doors used on July 16, 1969, by Apollo 11\u2032s Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins \u2014 the Operations and Checkout Building now bears Armstrong\u2019s name.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But instead of the traditional Astrovan, the two will climb into the back seat of a Tesla Model X for the nine-mile ride to Launch Complex 39A, the same pad used by the moonmen and most shuttle crews. It’s while they board the Tesla that they’ll see their wives and young sons for the last time before flight.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Making a comeback after three decades is NASA\u2019s worm logo \u2014 wavy, futuristic-looking red letters spelling NASA, the \u201cA\u201d resembling rocket nose cones. The worm adorns the Astro-Tesla, Falcon and even the astronauts’ suits, along with NASA\u2019s original blue meatball-shaped logo.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The white-suited Hurley and Behnken will transfer from the white Tesla to the white Dragon atop the equally white Falcon 9.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be quite a show,\u201d Reed promised.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VOA \u2014 CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. – The first astronauts launched by SpaceX are breaking new ground for style with hip spacesuits, gull-wing Teslas and a sleek rocketship \u2014 all of it white with black trim.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The color coordinating is thanks to Elon Musk, the driving force behind both SpaceX and Tesla, and a big fan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":86024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latests"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}