The astronauts Robert L. Behnken, left, and Douglas G. Hurley, donning their spacesuits during a dress rehearsal of SpaceX’s uncrewed In-Flight Abort Test in January (NASA photo).
Robert Behnken earned his doctorate at the California Institute of Technology, and served as an Air Force Colonel at Edwards AFB; where after attending the Air Force Test Pilot School he served as the lead Flight Test Engineer for the F-22 Raptor.[i]
Douglas Hurley was commissioned in the U.S. Marine Corps as an infantry officer after graduating from Tulane University, and then attended Naval Aviator School. He flew the F-18 with the “Vikings” of Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 225, and did three overseas deployments before attending Naval Test Pilot School. As a test pilot at Naval Strike Aircraft Test Squadron (VX-23), Colonel Hurley became the first Marine pilot to fly the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet.[ii]
Behnken and Hurley joined NASA in 2000 and were two of the 17 astronauts selected by NASA that year. Both went to space twice on space shuttle missions, they both married astronauts from their class, and both have a son around the same age. After retirement of the Space Shuttle, the astronauts were teamed together for the first manned flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon where they spent over two months on the International Space Station expanding the facilities and conducting experiments.[iii]
On 31 January 2023, on behalf of President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris awarded former NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. The Space Medal of Honor was authorized by Congress in 1969 to recognize an astronaut who in the performance of duties has distinguished himself or herself by exceptionally meritorious efforts and contributions to the welfare of the nation and humanity.[iv] Of the 30 people who have received the award, the majority of them were made posthumously to those who died in American spaceflight.
Robert Behnken, left, and Douglas Hurley, right, are seen after being awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor by Vice President Kamala Harris (NASA photo).
Every time an astronaut goes to space, it is a dangerous assignment as evidenced by the number of astronauts that have perished on flight or training missions. Behnken and Hurley had accepted an especially dangerous assignment in this being the first time that astronauts went to space in an American rocket launching from the United States since the previous space shuttle mission in 2011. It was also the first crewed test flight for the Commercial Crew Program with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft. If the two astronauts were not concerned with the danger when they were launched into space, their astronaut wives must have had thoughts of the catastrophic explosion of the Crew Dragon test article due to a leaky valve that had happened earlier in the program.[v]
[i] Astronaut Biography, “Bob Behnken,” NASA, Johnson Space Center, July 2022, URL: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/behnken-rl.pdf, accessed 1 February 2023.
[ii] Astronaut Biography, “Douglas G. Hurley,” NASA, Johnson Space Center, October 2020, URL: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/hurley-dg.pdf, accessed 1 February 2023.
[iii] Chang, K., “Meet Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, SpaceX’s First NASA Astronauts,” New York Times, 27 May 2020, URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/science/bob-behnken-doug-hurley.html, accessed 31 January 2023.
[iv] Press Release, “VP Awards Former NASA Astronauts Congressional Space Medal of Honor,” NASA Commercial Crew Program Office, 31 January 2023, URL: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vp-awards-former-nasa-astronauts-congressional-space-medal-of-honor-301735478.html, accessed 1 February 2023.
[v] Harwood, W., “Explosion that destroyed SpaceX Crew Dragon is blamed on leaking valve,” Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), CBS News, 15 July 2019, URL: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/spacex-explosion-destroyed-crew-dragon-spacecraft-blamed-on-leaking-valve, accessed 31 January 2023.
Author: Kevin Burns
Kevin is the 2024-25 Area 5 commissioner and chairman for The American Legion Department of California Aerospace Commission.
