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Launching America on a commercial spacecraft…

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A NASA astronaut is headed back to the space
station …

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And new close-up imagery of asteroid Bennu
… a few of the stories to tell you about

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– This Week at NASA!

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A new era of American spaceflight got underway
on May 30 with the historic launch of NASA’s

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SpaceX Demo-2 test flight to the International
Space Station, from our Kennedy Space Center,

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in Florida.

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“Liftoff of the Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon.

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Go NASA.

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Go SpaceX.

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Godspeed Bob and Doug!”

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Our Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley rode to orbit
aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft,

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which the astronauts named, Endeavour.

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It was the first launch of Americans on an
American spacecraft from the U.S. in almost

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nine years.

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Other firsts during the journey included the
first on-orbit tour inside the Crew Dragon

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…

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“I think I was requested to do a backflip.

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I’m going to kind of do a side spin, which
is a little bit of a permutation on that request.”

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The first in-flight maneuvering of the spacecraft
by astronauts onboard …

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“It really worked out well.

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And was a joy to fly.

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And, I’m guessing it was the first time
a space vehicle was flown with a touchscreen.”

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And one of the crew’s first views of Earth
from Crew Dragon.

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“Good morning Dragon.

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We hope your evening aboard Endeavour was
restful …”

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The next day, several hours after the first
crew wakeup call on Crew Dragon …

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“Dragon’s coming up on just one hundred
meters away from the space station.”

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The spacecraft made its final approach to
the station – docking at 10:16 a.m. EDT

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while flying over the northern border of China
and Mongolia.

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A few hours later, Hurley and Behnken were
welcomed aboard the space station by fellow

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NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and others on
the station crew.

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“We are so grateful for the service of,
not just our two astronauts that embarked

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on this mission, but the hundred thousand
plus people that participated in this mission.”

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The astronauts are scheduled for an extended
stay at the space station.

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The mission is an end-to-end test flight to
eventually certify SpaceX for regular crew

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flights to the station as part of NASA’s
Commercial Crew Program.

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Astronaut Kate Rubins has been assigned to
a six-month mission as a member of the International

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Space Station’s Expedition 63/64 crew.

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She is scheduled to launch with two Russian
cosmonauts Oct. 14 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome

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in Kazakhstan.

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This will be her second spaceflight.

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In 2016 she spent 115 days in space as a member
of the station’s Expedition 48/49 crew.

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Our OSIRIS-REx spacecraft captured images
seen in this mosaic during a reconnaissance

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pass over Osprey – the mission’s backup
sample collection site on asteroid Bennu.

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The spacecraft passed just 820-feet above
the site, the closest from which Osprey has

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been imaged.

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OSIRIS-REx is scheduled to make its first
sample collection attempt at primary site

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Nightingale on Oct. 20.

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A virtual meeting of the American Astronomical
Society featured several items of note about

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the supermassive black hole at the center
of our Milky Way galaxy.

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This included some insight from our Hubble
Space Telescope about a cataclysmic explosion

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there about 3.5 million years ago, a new virtual
reality experience based on data from several

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telescopes – including our Chandra X-ray
Observatory, and new research from the SOFIA

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airborne observatory about how materials at
the center of the Milky Way are affected by

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magnetic fields at play there.

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That’s what’s up this week @NASA …