Almost nine years after the final space shuttle mission, SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida May 30, an American rocket launching from American soil, placing NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken into orbit in the new Crew Dragon spacecraft for their journey to the International Space Station. Some 12 minutes after a spectacular liftoff from Launch Pad 39-A, Crew Dragon separated from the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket and Hurley and Behnken began monitoring a series of test objectives for the duration of the vehicle’s 19-hour flight to the orbital outpost in the first crewed mission for the Commercial Crew Program. The veteran astronauts are scheduled to oversee an automated docking of Crew Dragon to the station May 31 to join NASA astronaut and Expedition 63 Commander Chris Cassidy of NASA and Russian crewmates Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner.
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