With bad weather threatening a delay, two NASA astronauts suited up for the launch of a SpaceX rocket ship Wednesday on a history-making flight to the International Space Station that was seen as a giant leap forward for the booming business of commercial space travel.
Space veterans Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken were scheduled to ride into orbit aboard the brand-new Dragon capsule on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, lifting off at 4:33 p.m. EDT from the same launch pad used by the Apollo moon missions a half-century ago.
"We're launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil. We haven't done this really since 2011, so this is a unique moment in time," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said. Musk, wearing a mask and keeping his distance, chatted with the astronauts just before they were about to leave for the launch pad in a gull-winged Tesla Model X SUV, built by another Musk business, the Tesla electric car company.
President Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence planned to fly into Kennedy, where the guest list was exceedingly limited because of the pandemic.
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