Despite all the jokes and criticism, SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, has achieved something grand this time. In a historic feat, SpaceX launched the world's first privately owned spacecraft, the Crew Dragon, which carried two people into space.
The company partnered with NASA for its first crewed mission, SpaceX Demo-2. The Crew Dragon boarded the Falcon 9 rocket and left Earth's surface on May 30 at 3:22 p.m. EDT (19:22 GMT), even though the flight had been scheduled to launch on May 7.
Two astronauts , Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, were on the spacecraft that traveled to the International Space Station (ISS), where they are going to spend a few months.
Demo-2 is the final flight test of SpaceX's spaceflight system, which, after its success, will pave the way for future crewed flights to the ISS using the Dragon capsule. As part of the tests, an uncrewed Dragon vehicle was sent last year to the space station.
The Crew Dragon arrives at the ISS
Sure, this reminds us of the iconic scene from Interstellar that kept many of us on edge.
According to the latest updates, the Crew Dragon docked with the ISS at 10:29 a.m. EDT (14:29 GMT) after nearly 19 hours of flight time.
The Crew Dragon is equipped with an automatic docking system to complete the procedure, although the two astronauts would take manual control briefly to maneuver it back into the system.
«We look forward to meeting today with the space station», said Hurley in a radio message sent to the SpaceX mission team located in Hawthorne, California.
After completing the berthing, Behnken and Hurley remained seated inside the Crew Dragon for about 2 hours and the spacecraft's door opened at 12:45 p.m. EDT (16:45 GMT). The official welcome ceremony began at 1:15 p.m. EDT (17:15 GMT).
On the ISS, the duo will travel alongside NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner.
How to watch the entire SpaceX Crew Dragon mission.
The entire SpaceX Demo-2 mission is being streamed live on NASA and SpaceX, so you can watch all the action without missing a moment.
The live stream shows video streams from the Crew Dragon spacecraft, as well as the SpaceX control center on Earth, which is coordinating with the two astronauts in space.
