The Apollo 15 command and service module "Endeavour" is seen from the lunar module "Falcon" in lunar orbit during NASA's fourth moon landing mission in August 1971. In photos: SpaceX's historic Demo-2 test flight with astronauts By comparison, SpaceX's Dragon is outfitted with touchscreens and can fly autonomously, though it too has some buttons for key functions and commands. "We're doing in a brand-new spaceship," said Behnken, "that is a lot different than its namesake - Endeavour, the space shuttle - in that it has touch display screens that allow us to accomplish most of the interfacing requirements that we have."Īlthough the shuttle orbiters, including Endeavour, were upgraded with "glass cockpits" that replaced many of their analog dials and gauges with digital displays, they were flown using buttons, switches and a physical hand controller (or stick). The Crew Dragon Endeavour has little in common with the space shuttle, having been designed by SpaceX to be a 21st century vehicle. Hurley also flew a second time on the space shuttle, but aboard Atlantis, as the pilot of the final flight of the shuttle program, STS-135 in 2011. Behnken preceded him aboard the orbiter by two flights, launching as an STS-123 mission specialist the year earlier.īehnken flew again on Endeavour on STS-130, the orbiter's penultimate mission, in 2010. Hurley's first launch was as the pilot of the shuttle Endeavour's 23rd mission, STS-127 in 2009. So that is what we decided to go with," he said. We both had our first flights on shuttle Endeavour, and it just meant so much to us to carry on that name. "The other reason we named it 'Endeavour' is a little more personal for Bob and I. launchpad and the first ever by a commercial company. "One, because of this incredible endeavor NASA, SpaceX and the United States has been on since the end of the space shuttle program back in 2011," he said, referencing the space agency's commercial crew program that led up to their orbital launch, the first in nine years from a U.S.
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