SpaceX launches NASA astronauts in first crewed flight from US soil in nine years
The Crew Dragon capsule carried two astronauts to orbit, the first people launched from the United States since the space shuttle retired in 2011.
SpaceX launched two NASA astronauts into orbit on Saturday, restoring the United States' ability to send people to space from its own soil for the first time since the space shuttle was retired nearly a decade earlier — and marking the first time a private company had flown humans to orbit.
Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket, bound for the International Space Station. The mission, known as Demo-2, was the final major test of the spacecraft before it could be certified for regular crewed flights.
Since the shuttle's retirement in 2011, NASA had relied on Russian Soyuz rockets to ferry its astronauts to the station, paying tens of millions of dollars per seat. The success of Crew Dragon ended that dependence and validated NASA's decision to hand routine crew transport to commercial partners.
The launch had been scrubbed days earlier because of weather, adding to the tension. When the rocket finally rose into a clear sky, it was watched by millions online and by President Donald Trump at the launch site.
About 19 hours later, the capsule docked smoothly with the space station, where the two astronauts were welcomed aboard. The flight opened a new era of spaceflight in which private vehicles would carry not only professional astronauts but, eventually, paying passengers.