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While the Americans have watched with shame as they become dependent on the Russians in space in recent years, SpaceX finally had to carry out another American human spaceflight on Wednesday evening.
All eyes were on the Cape Kennedy, Florida launch site. President Donald Trump flew his presidential plane, Air Force One, past the Crew Dragon missile, which was ready to be launched later in the evening.
Trump would watch astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley being shot at the ISS space station.
Donald and Melania Trump are present.
Ⓒ REUTERS
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The launch had been long awaited. The risks were high. Thirty-four years ago, the American shuttle Challenger exploded after 72 seconds, live on TV, killing seven crew members.
Called off
But not only safety is a problem; it could also be the weather, as it turned out. The launch, which was scheduled to take place just after 10:30 PM Dutch time, was definitively canceled about fifteen minutes before launch. A new attempt will be made on Saturday.
That Trump had come to Florida for the launch shows how much was at stake. Trump would only become the third US president to attend a launch. Richard Nixon was the second manned flight to the moon in November 1969 at the departure of Apollo 12. Bill Clinton watched space shuttle Discovery take off in 1998.
Commercial
Saturday will be the second chance to make the first commercial manned flight ever come true. While founder Elon Musk’s space ambitions have been delayed – he wanted to go to Mars, but that doesn’t seem to work in his own lifetime – this launch is considered an absolute highlight. Commercial space travel seems to have the future anyway. Musk is already feeling competition for SpaceX from Jeff Bezos, founder of web store giant Amazon, who works on his Blue Origin flights and a space colony with billions.
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