For the first time in a long time, the U.S. is back in the business of crewed spaceflight, with realistic hope of a new space age on the horizon
Despite an originally marginal weather forecast, history was made at the NASA complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Saturday afternoon. Two American astronauts were launched into space in a Dragon 2 spacecraft, owned and operated by SpaceX, a private company. Private contractors had built all previous NASA manned spacecraft, but NASA had operated those space vehicles itself.
— NASA May 30, 2020The SpaceX flight today ends that, hopefully for good. Not co-operation, of course – may that never end. But it does end Western dependence on Russian co-operation for access to orbit. SpaceX had seemed on track to begin flights into orbit last year, after a successful uncrewed test flight saw a Dragon 2 capsule launch from Earth, dock at the station and return safely to Earth. After the successful flight of the Dragon 2, however, the capsule was destroyed on the ground last April in an explosion during a test. It took SpaceX months to determine what had gone wrong and correct the problem.
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