Joining him in the Dragon will be Bob Behnken, 49, a veteran astronaut who has accumulated more than 708 hours in space. The company was founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets.

So it’s only fitting he will be one of two astronauts to usher in a new era of spaceflight. SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. “This is a unique moment where all of America can take a moment and look at our country do something stunning again,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said during a news briefing Tuesday.Īstronaut Doug Hurley, 53, was the pilot of the space shuttle Atlantis during the program’s final mission in July 2011. SpaceX has been launching cargo capsules to the space station since 2012. Now in development, it will go skywards between October 2026 and May 2027 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The launch has been called off for the day, less than 20 minutes before scheduled liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, due to inclement weather.

If all goes as planned with the launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, it will mark the first time a private company has launched people into orbit, the culmination of a partnership struck in 2014 between Elon Musk’s SpaceX and NASA as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. History was set to be made today as NASA and SpaceX geared up to launch Americans into space from American soil and on American equipment for the first time in nearly a decade. The SpaceX-built launch vehicle, consisting of a Crew Dragon capsule and a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket, blasted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at about 9 p.m. soil Wednesday afternoon for the first time in nearly a decade, carried into space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule making their first manned spaceflight. NASA is scheduled to launch astronauts from U.S.

The launch has been rescheduled for Saturday, May 30, at 3:22 p.m. UPDATE: Wednesday’s historic SpaceX launch was postponed due to weather conditions at the Kennedy Space Center.

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