SpaceX Rocket

SpaceX Rocket: First Historic Crewed Mission by a Private Firm

“This is a dream come true for me and everyone at SpaceX,” – Elon Musk, billionaire entrepreneur founder of SpaceX.

On Saturday May 30, 2020, marks the first spaceflight of NASA astronauts from U.S soil in nine years since the space shuttle program ended in 201.

Ushering in a new era in space travel, SpaceX rocket carrying two veteran NASA astronauts was headed for the International Space Station on the first ever crewed flight by SpaceX, first commercial firm to send astronauts into orbit founded by Elon Musk.

The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket aboard blasted off flawlessly in a cloud of bright orange flame and smoke from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center for the 19-hour voyage to the orbiting space station with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken,49 and Douglas Hurley,53 former military test pilots who joined NASA in 2000.

“Let’s light this candle,” Hurley, the spacecraft mission commander, told SpaceX mission control in Hawthorne, California, before liftoff at 3:22 pm (1922 GMT) from NASA’s fabled Launch Pad 39A.

The mission, called “Demo-2,” ends a government monopoly on space flight and is the final test flight before NASA certifies SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule for regular crewed missions.

Two astronauts are scheduled to dock with the space station at 10:29 am (1429 GMT) on Sunday. They will join US astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner aboard the ISS.
Crew Dragon had successfully entered low orbit and was on the correct trajectory to link up with the space station 250 miles (450 kilometers) above the Earth said by SpaceX

‘Special day’

Live webcast of Crew Dragon’s test flight with @NASA astronauts @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug → https://t.co/bJFjLCzWdK https://t.co/qalF7oCJO6

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 30, 2020