SpaceX, the private rocket company of billionaire business owner Elon Musk, launched two Americans towards orbit from Florida on Saturday in a mission that marks the first spaceflight of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil in 9 years.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took off from the Kennedy Area Center at 3: 22 p.m. EDT (1922 GMT), introducing Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on a 19- hour trip aboard the business’s recently created Crew Dragon pill bound for the International Space Station.
Crew Dragon separated from its 2nd stage booster at 3: 35 and has gone into orbit.
The craft launched from the same pad utilized by NASA’s final space shuttle flight, piloted by Mr. Hurley, in2011 Ever since, NASA astronauts have needed to drawback flights into orbit aboard Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft.
” It’s extraordinary, the power, the technology,” said U.S. President Donald Trump, who was at Kennedy Area Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida for the launch. “That was a lovely sight