NASA Hosts Preview Briefings, Interviews for First Crew Launch with SpaceX

With the first mission to return human spaceflight launches to American soil now targeted to lift off May 27, NASA will highlight the historic flight with a series of news conferences Friday, May 1, that will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website. In addition, NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley, who will serve as crew for the mission, will be available for remote interviews.

NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston will host a trio of media briefings beginning at 11 a.m. EDT May 1, to preview NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission. The flight test with NASA astronauts aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft will lift off on a Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

All media participation in these news conferences and interviews will be remote; no media will be accommodated at any NASA site due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To participate in the briefings by phone or to request a remote interview with the crew members, reporters must email jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov no later than 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 28.

The May 1 briefings and participants include (all times EDT):

11 a.m. – Commercial Crew and International Space Station overview news conference with the following participants:

• NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine
• Kathy Lueders, program manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
• Kirk Shireman, program manager, International Space Station Program, NASA’s Johnson Space Center

·      Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer, SpaceX

12:30 p.m. – Mission Overview news conference with the following participants:

• Steve Stich, deputy manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA’s Johnson Space Center
• Zeb Scoville, NASA Demo-2 flight director, Flight Operations Directorate, NASA’s Johnson Space Center
• Benji Reed, director of crew mission management, SpaceX

2 p.m. – Crew news conference with the following participants:

• Astronaut Robert Behnken, joint operations commander, NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission
• Astronaut Douglas Hurley, spacecraft commander, NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission

3:30 p.m. – Round-Robin interviews with the crew members:

• Behnken and Hurley will be available for a limited number of remote interviews

Following a May 27 launch, Behnken and Hurley are scheduled to arrive at the space station May 28 to join Expedition 63 commander Chris Cassidy of NASA and flight engineers Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.