SpaceX Makes History With First-Ever Human Rocket Launch For NASA
Astronauts have launched to orbit from the United States for the first time in nearly a decade, heralding a thrilling new era of human spaceflight. At 3.22 P.M. Eastern Time today, Saturday, May 30, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off on a Falcon 9 rocket from the historic Launch Complex 39-A at Cape Canaveral in Florida – once used to launch astronauts to the Moon, and to launch the Space Shuttle – on the Demo-2 mission . Today however it was the turn of a new breed of spacecraft, a commercial venture funded by NASA. Crew Dragon is the first-ever private human vehicle to head for orbit, the result of years of hard work. "This is everything America has to offer in its purest form," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said after the launch. "Times are tough right now. But I hope this moment in time is an opportunity for everybody to reflect on humanity and what we can do when we work together." It will now take astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley 19 hours t