The countdown began this morning for the launch of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Dragon Demo-2, a mission that will send NASA astronauts into space from U.S. soil for the first time in nearly a decade.
The backup launch was pushed to Saturday after it was scrubbed on Wednesday due to bad weather.
American astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Crew Dragon capsule. The last such launch came in July 2011 and became the final mission of NASA’s space shuttle program.
President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence watched the NASA/SpaceX launch from the Kennedy Center on Saturday.
Trump was beaming with pride!
“When you see a site like that, it’s incredible,” Trump said.
WATCH:
President Trump and @VP Pence watch @NASA @SpaceX Crew Dragon Launch https://t.co/jHxQS53v3F #LaunchAmerica pic.twitter.com/GfFgJjD0Bc
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 30, 2020
Watch close up footage of the launch:
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/DRBfdUM7JA
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 30, 2020
More footage from CSPAN:
WATCH: @NASA @SpaceX Crew Dragon Launch https://t.co/jHxQS53v3F #LaunchAmerica pic.twitter.com/xsho3b5ojg
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 30, 2020
