SPACEX ROCKET SHIP LIFTS OFF WITH TWO AMERICANS:
A rocket ship built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company thundered away from Earth with two Americans on Saturday, ushering in a new era of commercial space travel and putting NASA back in the business of launching astronauts from U.S. soil for the first time in nearly a decade.
NASA’s Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken rode skyward aboard a sleek, white-and-black, bullet-shaped Dragon capsule on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, lifting off from the same launch pad used to send the Apollo astronauts to the moon a half-century ago. The flight had been delayed three days because of stormy weather in Florida.
“Let’s light this candle,” Hurley said, borrowing the words used by Alan Shepard on America’s first human spaceflight in 1961.
The two men are scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station on Sunday for a stay of up to four months, after which they will return to Earth in a Right Stuff-style splashdown at sea.
More here: NASA-SpaceX Launch: How Long Will The Astronauts Be In Space Before Returning To Earth? “The space shuttle will dock with the International Space Station roughly 24 hours after arriving at the orbit. From here, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will join the team of existing ISS Expedition 63 crew. The group comprises of cosmonauts Ivan Vagner and Anatoly Ivanishin, and NASA space explorer Chris Cassidy…The SpaceX Crew Dragon has been equipped to stay in the Earth’s orbit for about 110 days; however, there are no details on when the astronauts will actually return to Earth. NASA has stated that the exact length of the SpaceX mission will only be confirmed once the space travellers reach the International space station.”
Related: Stage 1 Successfully Lands on Drone Ship.
The launch was so thrilling that somebody forgot to proof a headline:
Big, if true.