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SpaceX Successfully Launches Nasa Astronauts Into Orbit

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SpaceX Successfully Launches Nasa Astronauts Into Orbit

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Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk-owned SpaceX created history by becoming the first private rocket company to launch two American astronauts toward orbit from Florida on Saturday (May 30).

The mission is significant as it marks the first spaceflight of NASA astronauts from American soil after a gap of over nine years.

The two astronauts — veteran NASA fliers Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley — rode into space inside SpaceX’s new automated spacecraft called the Crew Dragon, a capsule designed to take people to and from the International Space Station. Strapped inside the sleek, gumdrop-shaped capsule, the duo lifted off on top of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Some traditions remain. 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.

The rocket dropped the Crew Dragon off in orbit about 12 minutes later. Now, the pair will spend roughly the next day in orbit before attempting to dock with the International Space Station on Sunday morning. “Thank you for the first human ride for Falcon 9,” co-commander Doug Hurley said from the flight deck after Dragon reached orbit. “It was incredible … appreciate all the hard work and thanks for the great ride to space.”

“It’s been way too long,” Jim Bridenstine, the Nasa administrator, said of the launch. “It was just an amazing day. I’m breathing a sigh of relief but I won’t be celebrating until Bob and Doug are home safely.”

“It’s really hard to believe this is real. This is a dream come true for me and everyone at SpaceX, the result of a tremendous number of smart people working tremendously hard to make this day happen,” said Musk.

Talking to media, NASA chief Jim Bridenstine asserted that the top priority of the US-based space agency is to resume launches of American astronauts on American-made rockets from US soil.

The 53-year-old Hurley and 49-year-old Behnken would remain at the ISS several weeks and will assist a short-handed crew aboard the orbital laboratory.

NASA astronauts fly SpaceX’s Crew Dragon using touchscreens

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Nearly two hours after NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley became the first astronauts launched to space on a privately-owned rocket, they also became the first to pilot a spaceship using only touchscreen controls.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon eschews the famous maze of manual controls and switches found on retired spacecraft like the Space Shuttle or the Apollo command modules. Instead, Crew Dragon pilots have just three large touchscreen panels in front of them and a few spare buttons below. So, during the few times that they have to manually control the spacecraft, they do so using a video game-style interface on those screens.

 

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