The demo 2 mission astronauts Bob Behnken (left) and Doug Hurley train with the touchscreens in the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.
SpaceX
With NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken Start in the SpaceX Crew Dragon On their way to the International Space Station today, they will not only be the first astronauts to take off from US soil since the shuttle era, but also the first astronauts to fly into space using a touchscreen.
Hurley and Behnken launch on Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The so-called Demo-2 mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, in which the space agency worked with SpaceX and Boeing to advance manned space flight.
It is a premiere for NASA and also a premiere for the pilots. Hurley and Behnken are veterans of the shuttle era and are used to flying a spaceship using fully manual controls – from switches and dials to manual hand controls for docking. In comparison, the fully automatic Crew Dragon can autonomously dock with the ISS. Since Demo-2 is a test flight, Hurley and Behnken continue to control parts of the flight manually, even if they are approaching the space station. But when they do, they do it with swipes, not switches.
“Growing up as a pilot throughout my career, with a certain way of controlling the vehicle, this is certainly different,” said Hurley in a pre-launch press conference.
“You have to be very aware of what you would type with a touchscreen compared to what you would do with a stick. For example, if you fly an airplane and push the stick forward, it starts. I actually have to make concerted efforts to do this with a touchscreen. “
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NASA astronauts are about to launch a spaceship with …
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On this occasion, the astronauts wear tailored spacesuits with special gloves that they can use to touch the screens. The suits, designed by SpaceX in collaboration with costume designer Jose Fernandez, also feature a single umbilical connection for cooling and communication systems and a 3D-printed helmet.
While Hurley and Behnken are the first people to ride the Crew Dragon, SpaceX hopes that they will be the first of many. The company already has plans to bring private, paying citizens to the seven-seat, three-window capsule as early as 2021.
Behnken is more careful whether touchscreens become the norm for space travel.
“The correct answer for all flights is not necessarily to switch to a touchscreen, but for the job we have … the touchscreen will fix that ability for us,” he said. “It just might not be the same thing you want to use if you were dressed and trying to fly an entry or climb.”