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The trip to the space station was the first from American soil since 2011 when the space shuttles were retired.
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Dragon SpaceX, go for launch. SpaceX Dragon, we’re a go for launch. Let’s light this candle. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Ignition. Liftoff! The Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon. Go NASA! Go SpaceX! Godspeed, Bob and Doug! America has launched. So rises a new era of American spaceflight. And with it, the ambitions of a new generation continuing the dream.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The United States opened a new era of human space travel on Saturday as a private company for the first time launched astronauts into orbit, nearly a decade after the government retired the storied space shuttle program in the aftermath of national tragedy.
Two American astronauts lifted off at 3:22 p.m. from a familiar setting, the same Florida launchpad that once served Apollo missions and the space shuttles. But the rocket and capsule that lofted them out of the atmosphere were a new sight for many — built and operated not by NASA but SpaceX, the company founded by the billionaire Elon Musk to pursue his dream of sending colonists to Mars.
[Follow live updates from SpaceX’s NASA crew-3 mission launch.]
Crowds of spectators including President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence watched and cheered as the countdown ticked to zero, and the engines of a Falcon 9 rocket roared to life.
Rising slowly at first, the rocket then shot like a sleek, silvery javelin into humid skies, three days after an earlier launch was canceled because of concerns about lightning and other unsafe weather.
It was a moment of triumph and perhaps nostalgia for the country, a welcome reminder of America’s global pre-eminence in science, technological innovation and private enterprise at a time its prospects and ambitions have been clouded by the coronavirus pandemic, economic uncertainty and political strife. Millions around the world watched the launch online and on television, many from self-imposed quarantine in their homes.
Mr. Trump, who watched from a rooftop at the space center, called it “an inspiration for our country” after the ship lifted off.
The Crew Dragon launched successfully on Saturday.
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