Four private astronauts blasted into space early on Tuesday (September 10) in a modified SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, kicking off the company's five-day Polaris Dawn mission, which aims to test new spacesuit designs and conduct the first private spacewalk.
The crew, a billionaire entrepreneur, a retired military fighter pilot and two SpaceX employees, lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida about 5:23 a.m. EST (0923 GMT).
The capsule reached orbit about nine and a half minutes later, and the crew batted around a small plush astronaut toy dog as free fall - zero gravity - became apparent.
Crew Dragon separated from its support trunk three minutes after that, with onboard cameras revealing a spectacular view of the capsule over the sunlit Earth.
The crew, a billionaire entrepreneur, a retired military fighter pilot and two SpaceX employees, lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida about 5:23 a.m. EST (0923 GMT).
The capsule reached orbit about nine and a half minutes later, and the crew batted around a small plush astronaut toy dog as free fall - zero gravity - became apparent.
Crew Dragon separated from its support trunk three minutes after that, with onboard cameras revealing a spectacular view of the capsule over the sunlit Earth.
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00:005, 4, 3, 2, 1, ignition, and liftoff.
00:07Go Falcon, go for landing.
00:11Copy, 1 Alpha.
00:14Vehicle is switching downrange.
00:18Stage 1 propulsion is nominal.
00:302 minutes into flight. Everything continues to look good.
00:41We'll have, in half a minute, 3 major activities.
00:45Shutdown of the 9 Merlin 1D engines.
00:48Stage 1 throttle down.
00:50And then ignition of the 2nd stage engine.
00:54Throttle down, we're holding a constant acceleration now for the crew just below 4 G's.
01:00We're coming up 70 kilometers.
01:08Preparing for MECO.
01:13Main engine cutoff.
01:152 Alpha.
01:17Stage separation confirmed.
01:19Copy, 2 Alpha.
01:24Ignition.
01:31As you can tell by the cheers behind us and the views on your screen,
01:38the first stage booster now on its way to attempt landing on Just Read the Instructions.