Space X launch: NASA Astronaut Begins Historic Mission

SpaceX, the private rocket company of billionaireentrepreneur Elon Musk, launched two Americans into orbit from Florida onSaturday in a landmark mission marking the first spaceflight of NASA astronautsfrom US soil in nine years.

ASpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 3:22 p.m.EDT (1922 GMT), launching Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on a 19-hour ride aboardthe company's newly designed Crew Dragon capsule bound for the InternationalSpace Station.

Just before liftoff, Hurley said, "SpaceX, we're gofor launch. Let's light this candle," paraphrasing the famous comment utteredon the launch pad in 1961 by Alan Shepard, the first American flown into space.

Minutesafter launch, the first-stage booster rocket of the Falcon 9 separated from theupper second-stage rocket and flew itself back to Earth to descend safely ontoa landing platform floating in the Atlantic.

High above the Earth, the Crew Dragon jettisonedmoments later from the second-stage rocket, sending the capsule on its way tothe space station.

Theexhilarating spectacle of the rocket soaring flawlessly into the heavens cameas a welcome triumph for a nation gripped by racially-charged civil unrest aswell as ongoing fear and economic upheaval from the coronavirus pandemic.

TheFalcon 9 took off from the same launch pad used by NASA's final space shuttleflight, piloted by Hurley, in 2011. Since then, NASA astronauts have had tohitch rides into orbit aboard Russia's Soyuz spacecraft.

"It'sincredible, the power, the technology," said US President Donald Trump, who wasat Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida for the launch. "That wasa beautiful sight to see."

Themission's first launch attempt on Wednesday was called off with less than 17minutes remaining on the countdown clock. Weather again threatened Saturday'slaunch, but cleared in time to proceed with the mission.