The launch is another milestone for SpaceX, Musk’s company, which has been ferrying cargo to the ISS aboard uncrewed spacecraft. Dragon fired off from launchpad 39A, site of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s blast-off to the moon in 1969, the first flight of the space shuttle Columbia in 1981 and also the most recent crewed Nasa flight, the 2011 launch of the orbiter Atlantis, piloted by Hurley. Their pressurized flight suits, partly designed by Musk himself, look like “something out the Jetsons” according to Leland Melvin, a former shuttle astronaut.
Nasa astronauts Douglas Hurley, left, and Robert Behnken wave while seated in a Tesla SUV on their way to Pad 39-A, at the Kennedy Space Center. The crew eschewed the “tin-can” Astrovan that has been the crew transport since the US began sending humans into space in 1961, traveling to the launchpad in electric cars manufactured by Tesla, another Musk company, listening to music by AC/DC. The four-seat, touch-screen technology Dragon capsule is a 21st-century spacecraft bearing little resemblance to the largely mechanical Apollo capsules of the 1960s and Nasa’s fleet of space shuttle orbiters. Some analysts, see Trump as seeking to exploit space programs set in motion before his presidency for political gain, channeling a message of US global supremacy even amid a pandemic to which his response has been roundly criticized. He has also directed Nasa to land humans on the moon by 2024, for the first time since the final Apollo mission in 1972, although the agency’s deep-space Artemis program is many months behind schedule and over budget. Trump has made space a priority through the foundation of space force as a branch of the US military, independent of Nasa, and the unveiling of his America First National Space Strategy. I’m breathing a sigh of relief but I won’t be celebrating until Bob and Doug are home safely.”Īlthough the public was urged to watch the launch remotely because of coronavirus restrictions, Donald Trump and his wife Melania, and Vice-President Mike Pence, attended in person. “It’s been way too long,” Jim Bridenstine, the Nasa administrator, said of the launch. Behnken and Hurley will remain in orbit for up to 120 days. Hurley and Bob Behnken, veterans of space shuttle missions, will join their Nasa colleague Chris Cassidy, already resident with two Russian cosmonauts aboard the ISS.Īs a test mission paving the way for regular flights of Dragon later this year, every aspect of the spacecraft’s performance will be analyzed by SpaceX engineers. The capsule reached orbit 12 minutes later, and will spend 19 hours chasing the space station 250 miles above the planet before docking on Sunday. The Falcon rocket booster, as has become almost routine for SpaceX, returned to Earth after first-stage separation and landed successfully on a recovery ship in the Atlantic for use on a future mission. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/ReutersĪs on Wednesday, when the first attempt at launch was postponed with 17 minutes on the countdown clock, mission managers played cat and mouse with the weather, facing only a 50% chance of a “go” at daybreak, when thunderstorms, lightning and low clouds stalked Cape Canaveral. A few seconds before touchdown, the second stage reached its initial "parking" orbit.Donald Trump, Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, applaud after the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It was the California rocket builder's 23rd launch so far this year and its 157th overall.Īs planned, the first stage boosted the rocket out of the lower atmosphere and then fell away, flying itself back to a pinpoint landing on an off-shore droneship. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket climbs toward orbit carrying a commercial Egyptian communications satellite. With its nine first stage engines generating a combined 1.7 million pounds of thrust, the slender rocket arced away to the east over the Atlantic Ocean and quickly disappeared from view. EDT and vaulted skyward from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station atop a jet of flaming exhaust. Using a first stage booster making its seventh flight, the Falcon 9 thundered to life at 5:04 p.m. SpaceX launched its 23rd Falcon 9 rocket so far this year Wednesday, propelling a sophisticated Egyptian communications satellite into orbit to expand television service across the Middle East and Africa while providing broadband connectivity over Egypt.