Today (May 21), former NASA astronauts Mike Massimino and Garrett Reisman will go live to chat about SpaceX's upcoming historic launch.
The free, live virtual event, an installment in the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum's Virtual Astronomy Live series, will go live today from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. EDT (1930 to 2100 GMT). You can watch it here at the Kerbal Space Academy's website.
Massimino, who currently serves as senior advisor of space programs at the Intrepid, and Reisman, who serves as a senior advisor at SpaceX, will be chatting about SpaceX's upcoming Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission, which is set to launch next week on May 27.
Related: How SpaceX's Demo-2 mission works in 13 steps
In photos: SpaceX's Demo-2 Crew Dragon test flight with astronauts
This event is hosted and co-produced by John "Das" Galloway, who founded the Kerbal Space Academy, and moderated by Summer Ash, an astrophysicist, rocket scientist and science communicator.
"I remember hearing about SpaceX and what they wanted to do and all the other private companies and watching their progress was just amazing," Massimino told Space.com about watching the evolution of commercial spaceflight leading up to this historic launch.
"It's really historic and important to do this, launching from the U.S. from an astronaut's perspective is, I think, completely different than watching from another country," Massimino said, adding that "it also is interesting because it's, I think, a sign of things to come as far as the way things are being done in space by more private companies, as NASA is partnering [with] a private company to supply the launch vehicle and using those services."
Demo-2 will launch veteran NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. Behnken and Reisman actually flew together on STS-123 as part of NASA's space shuttle program.
This historic launch will be a huge step forward for commercial spaceflight and human spaceflight in general, as it will be the first crewed launch to orbit to lift off from American soil since the shuttle program ended in 2011. The mission will lift off May 27 at 4:32 p.m. EDT (2032 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
- SpaceX's Crew Dragon space capsule explained (infographic)
- SpaceX celebrates Crew Dragon's 1st launch anniversary with epic video
- See the evolution of SpaceX's rockets in pictures
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