Spacex capsule speeding astronauts to space station in landmark journey
TWo American astronauts are cruising to the International Space Station aboard a Spacex capsule, forging a new landmark for nasa and visionary billionaire Elon Musk.
Thedragoncapsulecarryingnasaastronautsbob Behnken and Doug Hurley is scheduled to arrive at the orbiting lab at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday, about 19 hours after lifting off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Approximately 10 million people watched the launch live.
“Today was just an amazing day,” nasa Administrator Jim Bridenstine said after the launch. “I’m breathing a sigh of relief, but I’m not going to celebrate until Bob and Doug are home safely.”
The milestone flight marked the first time that humans have traveled to orbit in a commercially developed spacecraft—and the first time American astronauts have flown from US soil since the space shuttle program ended in 2011. The launch comes 18 years after Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp. with the ultimate goal of populating other planets.
‘so proud’
Boeing Co. is also preparing to carry people to the orbiting lab as part of the same Commercial Crew program at nasa.
Weather clears
THE Spacex launch was originally slated for May 27, but was scrubbed due to bad weather. While rain showers earlier Saturday briefly raked launch complex 39A, the weather cleared and Spacex loaded fuel onto the Falcon 9 rocket and moved through a final check of its systems.
gwynne Shotwell, the company’s president and chief operating officer, said she was “supernervous, stomach-in-throat,” in a television interview from Spacex headquarters minutes before lift-off. Shotwell and her team monitored the mission from the company’s control center in Hawthorne, California, wearing masks and sitting at carefully spaced terminals.
Successfully carrying humans to space would mark the latest breakthrough for a company known for setting audacious goals. In the decade since the first Falcon 9 rocket reached orbit, Spacex has eclipsed rivals like Europe’s Arianespace and United launch Alliance, a Boeing-lockheed Martin Corp. venture, to grab the lead of commercial launches.
“launching satellites is nice and we got to bring in more money than we spend, this is important, but ultimately this is life beyond earth,” Musk said at a briefing after the launch, where he recalled how he developed Spacex with funds he got from Paypal. “Hopefully this is the first step on that journey” for “life becoming multi-planetary for the first time.”
Musk’s space company is valued at about $36 billion, and its bravado and reusable rockets have inspired other entrepreneurs. The competition could get fierce this decade as Blue origin, founded and funded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, northrop grumman Corp., ULA and Sierra nevada Corp. all bring new spacecraft to market.
‘numerous providers’