One small step for man and one giant leap for the commercial space industry.
Crew Dragon capsule carrying NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley docked with International Space Station in just 19 hours, a day after a Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Kennedy Space Center with the spacecraft.
Elon Musk’s company came within 17 minutes Wednesday of launching a pair of NASA astronauts for the first time in nearly a decade from the US, before the threat of lightning forced a delay.
With thunderstorms threatening a delay, two NASA astronauts climbed aboard a SpaceX rocket ship Wednesday for liftoff on a history-making flight that was seen as a giant leap forward for the booming business of commercial space travel.
Two NASA astronauts gearing up to ride SpaceX's new space taxi will now be on a mission planned to last more than a month, instead of a week, to help the short-handed crew aboard the ISS, the US space agency said.
Elon Musk's SpaceX has signed a deal with Axiom Space to transport the tourists along with a commander on one of its Crew Dragon capsules in the second half of 2021.
The launch came a week after two back-to-back countdowns for the mission were scrubbed - once due to high winds over the Cape and the next night in order to update satellite software and "triple-check" all systems.
The Elon Musk founded company is using the flight as a test, before it plans to put two astronauts on board later this year.
Falcon 9 rocket launched by billionaire Elon Musk's company carries US Air Force's most powerful GPS satellite ever built, from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The rocket is designed to require far less maintenance and refurbishment between flights, and is certified to carry humans to space later this year when SpaceX launches its Dragon crew capsule to the International Space Station.
There were no injuries nor any threat to the public reported after the unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida during a test.
SpaceX has finally landed its Falcon 9 rocket on ocean drone platform for first time after launching vehicle into space
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