Miami – A Falcon 9 rocket from the aeronautical company SpaceX with the Crew Dragon capsule in which two astronauts from the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) took off this Saturday from platform 39A of the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral on the first human space flight to the International Space Station (EEI) from US soil in nine years.
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At 3:22 p.m. The rocket took off in the presence of President Donald Trump after the launch was canceled last Wednesday due to bad weather conditions.
Aboard the Crew Dragon capsule are Doug Harley and Bob Benhken, two astronauts who participated in shuttle missions canceled by NASA after the Atlantis voyage in 2011.
Harley and Benhken are part of the Demo-2 mission, designed to validate manned space travel using the SpaceX-designed rocket and capsule, the first time in history that a private US company has designed, built, and launched a space vehicle from the ground. American.
SpaceX carried out the automated Demo-1 mission in March last year. The capsule, which carries cargo for the ISS and an electronic mannequin named “Ripley” (after the character Sigourney Weaver played in the first four films in the “Alien” series), docked with the station automatically.
“It is absolutely an honor for us to be part of this great effort to put the United States back into the space launch market,” Behnken said a few minutes before takeoff.
“Thank you for all the work you did and putting the United States back into Earth orbit from the Florida coast,” added Hurley already from space.
Forecasts for the 45th Squadron from the US Air Force initially predicted a 50% chance that the launch would be postponed until Sunday, when weather conditions were expected to improve considerably, but time gave a truce and allowed the rocket to take off.
Just seven minutes before the countdown ended, the final green light was given for takeoff after the last weather update.
The ascent, which lasted a total of nine minutes, went smoothly up to 200 kilometers high when the ship’s thrusters came into operation.
Twelve minutes after liftoff, the Crew Dragon capsule completely separated from the second Falcon 9 rocket part and headed for the ISS where astronauts will spend six to sixteen weeks conducting technical and scientific research before returning to Earth.
In turn, the Falcon 9 rocket landed on the “Of Course I Still Love You” platform in the Atlantic Ocean at 3:33 pm EST.
About 19 hours after takeoff (at 10:29 am Sunday), the spacecraft is expected to dock on the ISS in what will be the conclusion of a mission that paves the way for the commercialization of Earth orbit and, if successful , NASA would certify the ability to perform space flights of the company founded by Elon musk, also creator of the luxury electric car company Tesla.
Once the astronauts return to Earth, the next launch is scheduled for August 30, when NASA’s operational missions would begin with the help of SpaceX, leaving behind these nine years in which the United States required the systems of Russian launches like the Soyuz to send their astronauts into space.
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