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.
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