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ORLANDO, Fla., May 1 (UPI) -- The duration of SpaceX's first mission with astronauts on board -- planned to launch at May 27 from Florida -- has been extended from a few days to potentially weeks aboard the International Space Station, NASA said Friday. The mission was lengthened to ensure that the crew -- astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley -- can help maintain and operate the space station, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. "Among the work that will await their arrival is upgrading the space station's power system with new batteries due to arrive in May,"...

The first flight of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil in nearly nine years finally has a launch date: May 27. The mission will launch astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft in a final test flight for NASA. The mission, Demo-2, will mark NASA's first crew launch from American soil since the agency's space shuttle fleet retired in July 2011. Liftoff is set for 4:32 p.m. EDT (2032 GMT) from historic Launch Pad 39A, the same site used for NASA's Apollo and shuttle missions.

NASA’s top executive concentrating on human spaceflight, Doug Loverro, has resigned just a week before the scheduled start of a milestone space mission. Loverro became NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations last December, and was playing a leading role in NASA’s Artemis moon program as well as preparations for next week’s launch of a SpaceX Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station. That mission, set for liftoff on May 27 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is due to send NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the station for a stay that could last...