Musk ‘fired up’ after launch of Falcon 9 rocket

ORLANDO, FLA. — Calling it a “picture-perfect mission,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Sunday celebrated the successful launch and destruction of a Falcon 9 rocket that safely jettisoned a Crew Dragon capsule into the Atlantic Ocean.

The launch was a major step toward the return of human spaceflight from U.S. soil, something Musk says could happen as early as April. That would mark the first U.S.-based launch of astronauts since 2011.

“I’m super fired up,” Musk said after the successful inflight abort test. “This is great. This is really great. We are looking forward to the next steps.”

The in-flight abort test mimicked what would happen if the Crew Dragon had to detach from the rocket in an emergency during an actual launch.

About 90 seconds into Sunday’s flight, the Falcon 9’s firststage engine shut down as “SuperDraco” thrusters shot the Crew Dragon away from the rocket to safety.

The parachutes were deployed and the capsule splashed down in the Atlantic a few minutes later.

“Another amazing milestone is complete for our very soonto-be (realized) project,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a news conference after the launch, “which is to launch American astronauts on an American rocket from American soil.”

Bridenstine cautioned that there were still several steps to come, including collecting and interpreting the data from Sunday’s launch. But he also said that the SpaceX effort has been advancing swiftly.