Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon rocket successfully launched
Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket launches a new era of private spaceflight and a revival of the US space program.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket carrying two American astronauts has blasted off from the Kennedy Space Centre, launching a new era of private spaceflight and a revival of the US space program.
The launch, which was aborted last week because of poor weather, eventually took place early Saturday morning Australian time, as the rocket lifted from the launch pad amid a ball of flame.
Donald Trump and First Lady Melania flew to the Kennedy Space Centre to watch the launch.
Veteran NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, were driven to the launch pad in one of Musk’s Tesla cars before climbing into the Dragon capsule on top of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
The successful launch means that SpaceX, founded by entrepreneur Musk, becomes the first private company to put astronauts into space.
The move potentially paves the way for cheaper and more regular privately funded space missions and even space tourism.
Crew Dragon has separated from Falcon 9’s second stage and is on its way to the International Space Station with @Astro_Behnken and @AstroDoug! Autonomous docking at the @Space_Station will occur at ~10:30 a.m. EDT tomorrow, May 31 pic.twitter.com/bSZ6yZP2bD
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 30, 2020
The astronauts will take about 19 hours to reach the international space station where they will stay for around a month.
SpaceX, founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk, defeated its competitor Boeing in a race to be the first private company to deliver a rocket to NASA but the company has had teething problems getting to this stage.
In April last year a crew capsule exploded during a test, grounding the vehicle for months. The following month, in May, the parachutes that slow the capsule as it returns to earth failed. The failed tests did not involve crew.
Since the retirement of the Space Shuttle program in 2011, the US has been forced to pay Russia to take US astronauts to the space station.
The mission is the culmination of the plan to make private industry, rather than the government-owned NASA, pay for the expensive construction of spacecraft. Astronauts Hurley and Behnken, are NASA veterans who have spent 57 days in space between then and have served as test pilots in the Marine Corps and air force, respectively.
The successful launch provided US President Donald Trump a moment to relish during what has been a difficult week with protests breaking out in several American cities over the death of a black man, George Floyd, while he was in police custody, and the country’s death toll from the coronavirus surpassing 100,000.
“That was a beautiful sight to see and I hope you all enjoyed it,” Mr Trump said shortly after lift off.
“When you hear that sound and you hear all of that roar, you can imagine how dangerous it is,” Trump said. “When you feel the shake - and we’re very far away - but when you feel the shake over here, it’s pretty amazing. Beautiful sight. A beautiful ship, too.”
Asked why he felt it was important to be in Florida for the launch, given all that is going on in the country, Mr Trump said the launch was a “great inspiration” for the country.
“We suffered something that was terrible, it should have never happened. And that’s one of the reasons I wanted to be here today. I thought it was so important to be here today,” Mr Trump said. “And I think any one of you would say, that was an inspiration to see what we just saw.”
Mr Trump visited the launch control centre to congratulate those involved and spoke with Musk, who wore a shirt emblazoned with the launch’s logo. Under Trump, NASA has provided companies with research and development funds to help build their own spacecraft. Ultimately, NASA hopes to rely in part on its commercial partners as it works to send astronauts back to the moon in the next few years, and on to Mars in the 2030s.
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