New rocket men give America a real blast
“SPACEX, Dragon, we are go for launch. Let’s light this candle.”
With these words from astronaut Doug Hurley, America launched its first manned space flight in almost a decade.
After listening to AC/DC’s Back in Black on the way to the launch pad, Hurley and Bob Behnken were propelled on a 19-hour ride aboard SpaceX’s newly designed Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station.
US President Donald Trump watched the launch at Cape Canaveral and praised America’s “bold and triumphant return to the stars”.
“With this launch, the decades of lost years and little action are officially over,” he said. “The names of Hurley and Behnken will stand in the history books alongside those of legends like Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, John Young.”
The launch ushers in a new age of US space travel and the White House and NASA hope it will provide a patriotic boost to the shaken nation.
“Godspeed Bob and Doug,” said Mission Control as the sprawling Kennedy Space Center erupted into loud cheers.
The historic joint mission between NASA and Elon Musk’s SpaceX was the first time a commercial company has sent humans into space, and came days after its initial launch was cancelled at the last moment due to a hurricane warning.
Flight operations managers declared the mission was 70 per cent likely at Saturday’s final weather check, giving the go ahead 45 minutes out and leading crews to begin loading the rocket with fuel.
Astronauts Hurley, 53, and Behnken, 49, were strapped into their Crew Dragon seats, after having made their way up an 80m tower to the access bridge that leads to the capsule atop the Falcon 9 rocket.
NASA televised a livestream on the internet to an audience of three million.
The men appeared calm, sitting side-by-side in their white flight suits.
They blasted off from the same launch pad used in 2011 for NASA’s final space shuttle flight, which was piloted by Hurley.
Twelve minutes after liftoff, the men were in orbit.
“I’ve heard that rumble before, but it’s a whole different feeling when you’ve got your own team on that rocket. They are our team. They are America’s team,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.
Mr Musk had earlier said meeting the astronauts’ families ahead of the postponed launch had brought home the responsibility of the mission.
He said he told their children: “We’ve done everything we can to make sure your dads come back OK”.
The launch came as America wrestled with the dual crises of nationwide race riots and the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Bridenstine described the mission as historic.
“Maybe there’s an opportunity here for America to maybe pause and look up and see a bright, shining moment of hope at what the future looks like, that the United States of America can do extraordinary things even in difficult times,” he said.
America stopped manned flights in 2011, and since then its astronauts travelling to the ISS have had to hitch a highpriced ride with Russia with each seat on the Soyuz program costing $A100 million.
Mr Bridenstine said Mr
Musk had “absolutely delivered” on what he had promised NASA. “What Elon Musk has done for the American space program is he has brought vision and inspiration that we hadn’t had (since 2011),” he said.
NASA’s white uniforms were replaced by SpaceX with angular white versions with black trim. The crew on the Dragon capsule used three large touchscreens, compared to the dials and switches on traditional capsules.
It was a high-stakes mission for Mr Musk, who has drawn criticism with recent outbursts about Tesla’s stock price and his views that COVID-19 was being blown out of proportion and lockdowns were “fascist”.