TWO Nasa astronauts lifted off from the launch pad of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday in a SpaceX rocket to start their historic mission to the International Space Station.
The attempt is the first ever crewed space launch by a private company and follows last week’s cancellation due to fears of a lightning storm.
Despite more bad weather looming, the SpaceX team moved ahead with preparations and were soon rewarded with clear skies and the go-ahead for takeoff.
Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley soared into the atmosphere, accompanied by applause from the SpaceX and Nasa teams.
The flight has so far gone as planned, with Falcon 9 rocket’s main stage having already returned to earth and landed on its sea pad in the Atlantic Ocean.
The second stage of the launch, which sees the rocket light up its own engine and accelerate Behnken and Hurley’s capsule to orbital velocity, was also successful.
The pair now have 19 hours before they dock at the ISS on Sunday morning.
It is the first crewed spaceflight to take off from American soil in nearly a decade – but earlier in the day, there were doubts it would even happen.
Even President Trump had acknowledged there was only a “50/50” chance of a launch on Saturday, but had an “obligation” to attend the liftoff at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Trump has now become the third sitting president to watch a rocket launch live.
Elon Musk, who owns SpaceX, also indicated the big day may be postponed once more due to a weather risk.
However, with less than an hour before launch, officials said the cloud they had been waiting to disappear had finally cleared, and the weather meant the launch could go ahead.
Nasa says the mission – dubbed Demo-2 – will lay the groundwork for future manned flights to the Moon, Mars and beyond.
The flight will also mark the first time astronauts have flown into orbit using a spacecraft built by a private company.
American Nasa astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley are due to spend 24 hours in orbit before docking with the International Space Station roughly 250 miles above Earth.
Nasa has depended on Russia’s space agency Roscosmos for its manned launches since the Space Shuttle programme was shut down in 2011.
“I think it’s an outstanding flying machine,” Hurley said upon arrival at Kennedy Space Center last week.
“It is definitely not the space shuttle,” Hurley said of the SpaceX craft. “It’s much smaller, but it’s a capsule. It’s state of the art from a technology standpoint.”
Human spaceflights are far riskier than cargo-only trips, so weather conditions need to be perfect.
Clear skies and low winds are optimal for a successful launch – and even an emergency “mission abort” requires good weather for a safe splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.
Nasa keeps track of more than 50 locations across the ocean to ensure a splashdown can be safely performed.
Two astronauts, Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley, will be making the trip to the International Space Station (ISS).
They face “an extended stay at the space station”, according to Nasa
The specific duration of the mission is to be determined.
Both Behnken, 49, and Hurley, 53, have undergone extensive training ahead of the historic mission and have plenty of spaceflight experience.
Born in St. Anne, Missouri, Behnken previously worked for the US Air Force before joining Nasa.
Behnken will be the joint operations commander for the mission, responsible for activities such as rendezvous, docking and undocking, as well as Demo-2 activities while the spacecraft is docked to the space station, Nasa said.
He was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2000 and has completed two space shuttle flights.
Fellow crewman Hurley was born in New York and was previously a fighter pilot for the US Marine Corps.
According to Nasa, Hurley will be the spacecraft commander for Demo-2, responsible for activities such as launch, landing and recovery,
He was selected as an astronaut in 2000 and has completed two spaceflights.
Nasa astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley will make their way to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at the Kennedy Space Centre
They will be ferried to the spacecraft in a Tesla Model X electric car sporting the Nasa logo.
Hurley and Behnken will take a special elevator up 230ft to a SpaceX Crew Draon capsule atop the awaiting rocket.
Once in orbit, the Crew Dragon capsule carrying Hurley and Behnken will separate from the rocket booster.
As is customary for SpaceX flights, the booster will turn around and return to Earth so it can be refurbished and used on a future mission.
“Crew Dragon will accelerate its two passengers to approximately 17,000 mph and put it on an intercept course with the International Space Station,” Nasa said.
“Once in orbit, the crew and SpaceX mission control will verify the spacecraft is performing as intended by testing the environmental control system, the displays and control system and the maneuvering thrusters, among other things.”
About 24 hours after launch, Crew Dragon will be in position to dock with the space station.
It can do this automatically but astronauts have the option to take control themselves if something goes wrong.
“After successfully docking, Behnken and Hurley will be welcomed aboard station and will become members of the Expedition 63 crew,” Nasa continued.
“They will perform tests on Crew Dragon in addition to conducting research and other tasks with the space station crew.”
The Crew Dragon capsule will remain docked on the ISS until it’s needed to take astronauts back to Earth.
Nasa has not yet selected a date for the return flight.
The US space agency last fired one of its own astronauts into space in 2011.
Nasa retired its astronaut-carrying space shuttles that year to make way for a new space exploration program aimed at sending man to asteroids and other deep-space targets.
However, multiple delays to its development schedule have left the space agency without a way to carry out manned space flights for years.
Nasa hopes to fill the gap with spacecraft launched by private companies such as SpaceX, owned by Musk, and Blue Origin, run by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos.
SpaceX has carried out dozens of successful safety tests but recent setbacks have caught the ire of Nasa boss Jim Bridenstine.
Specifically, he lambasted SpaceX for setting unrealistic timelines for the development of its space technologies.
The Crew Dragon capsule was due to launch astronauts for the first time last year but the flight was pushed back after a safety test resulted in an unmanned capsule exploding in April 2019.
Here's what you need to know about the International Space Station...
No one was killed in the blast but the incident delayed the craft’s launch schedule by more than 12 months.
Bridenstine recently held a joint conference with Musk after maligning the company on Twitter.
“I have been focused on returning to realism when it comes to costs and schedules,” said the Nasa Administrator.
“So I was signalling – and I haven’t done it just to SpaceX but to all of our contractors – that we need more realism built into the development timelines.”
SpaceX is a cash-flushed rocket company that wants to take man to Mars.
It was set up by eccentric billionaire Elon Musk in 2002 and is based in Hawthorne, California.
SpaceX’s first aim was to build rockets that could autonomously land back on Earth and be re-used.
Musk hoped the technology would make flying and operating space flights far cheaper.
SpaceX currently uses its reusable rockets to fly cargo to the International Space Station for Nasa.
It also carries satellites and other space tech into orbit for various international governments and companies.
The company will take astronauts up to the ISS for the first time in 2020.
Other future missions involve carrying tourists and astronauts to the Moon.
Musk has repeatedly said he believes humanity must colonise Mars to save itself from extinction.
He plans to get a SpaceX rocket to the Red Planet sometime in the 2030s.
In other news, a tropical storm grounded a key SpaceX launch twice last week.
Nasa recently unveiled the Tesla car that will be ferrying astronauts to tonight’s historic launch.
And, incredible photos of eerie Martian landscapes have been released online by scientists.
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