SPACEX ASTRONAUTS WHAT'S UP, DOCK?!?
5/31/20
It was awesome and picture-perfect, as the 2 U.S. astronauts hitched their space capsule onto the International Space Station.
It went down Sunday AM Earth time ... 19 hours after the Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
It's the first time in the history of U.S. space exploration that astronauts were hurled into parts unknown by a rocket manufactured by a private company -- in this case, Elon Musk's SpaceX.
A cam from the Space Station captured the docking procedure ... check out the red, white and green lights that signify the progress as the Dragon capsule bellies up to its host.
The 2 astronauts -- Robert Behnken and Doug Hurley -- took over the controls during part of the maneuver. The actual docking was computer-driven.
The docking follows a picture-perfect launch Saturday afternoon. The docking indicated that the first portion of the test flight with crew aboard was successful.
The trip will be considered a complete success once the astronauts return to Earth in the near future, opening the way for more travel to the space station and orbit by astronauts and perhaps space tourists in the years to come.
The Space Station is 250 miles above the earth and travels at the incomprehensible speed of 17,500 MPH. NASA, which partnered with SpaceX, hasn't decided how long the astronauts will stay up in space. It could be anywhere between a month and 3 months.
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SpaceX, NASA Demo-2 Launches Successfully ... Capsule Now in Orbit
UPDATE
12:53 PM PT -- Falcon 9 is back on the ground after landing on a remote droneship, with the Crew Dragon capsule flying freely into Earth's orbit now. By all measures, Demo-2 has been a resounding and historical success.
UPDATE
UPDATE
12:27 PM PT -- The Falcon 9 rocket ship is in the AIR and on its way to the ISS, following a successful launch that seemed to go off without a hitch!!! Now, only something like 48 hours (give or take a day) left to go ...
UPDATE
UPDATE
12:14 PM PT -- President Trump has just arrived at the launch.
Elon Musk and co. are officially ready for round 2 of takeoff, just days after calling off their monumental space mission ... and TMZ is streaming the event live.
A couple of NASA astronauts are set to be launched into orbit Saturday via SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and accompanying the Crew Dragon capsule, which will be blasting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission has been dubbed, Demo-2.
Of course, Saturday's mission was supposed to go down Wednesday -- but it got pushed back due to bad weather ... something the space team there didn't wanna toy with and risk. Now, they're running it back with a predicted 50/50 chance of acceptable conditions.
5/27/20
The team is sending these astronauts to the International Space Station -- 250 miles or so above the Earth. This would mark the first spaceflight launched from U.S. soil in just under a decade. The point of the mission is to see if we're able to taxi astronauts to and from the ISS and Earth -- something Elon's rocketship proved to be capable of a few years ago when SpaceX first secured a multi-billion dollar contract with NASA and passed some tests.
5/29/2020
Looks like the two American astronauts being sent up there -- Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken -- are already suited up and aboard the spacecraft. SpaceX says all systems are a go (for now) ... and everything seems primed for an actual launch -- barring any unforeseen mishaps (like an explosion at the launchpad or a lightning storm or something).
Originally Published -- 11:53 AM PT
Stay tuned ...
