AFP :
NASA and SpaceX celebrated the successful launch Saturday of a new astronaut capsule on a week-long round trip to the International Space Station-a key step towards resuming manned space flights from US soil after an eight-year break.
This time around, the only occupant on board SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule was a dummy named Ripley-but NASA plans to put two astronauts aboard later this year. The new capsule blasted off aboard the Falcon 9 rocket built by SpaceX-run by billionaire Elon Musk-at 2:49 am (0749 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, lighting up the coastline. Eleven minutes later, the confirmation came from SpaceX mission control: “Dragon separation confirmed.” That triggered cheers at the firm’s headquarters and at the Kennedy Space Center. The capsule is scheduled to reach the ISS by Sunday at around 1100 GMT, with a return to Earth next Friday. It will splash down in the Atlantic Ocean, from where it will be brought back to Cape Canaveral.
In another success, the rocket’s first stage returned to Earth, landing on a platform 500 kilometers (310 miles) off the Florida coast in the Atlantic. It marks the 35th such recovery by SpaceX. NASA had announced weather conditions were good head of the launch, with an 80-percent chance of favorable weather.
SpaceX chief Elon Musk, who founded the company in 2002, was at the space center for the occasion.
“This is a critically important event in American history,” the head of the US space agency, Jim Bridenstine, told reporters on Friday, with the rocket and capsule visible behind him on the legendary launch pad where the Apollo missions to the Moon began. “We’re on the precipice of launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil again for the first time since the retirement of the space shuttles in 2011.”
