YouTube download / AP video / A rocket ship designed and built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX has lifted off with two Americans on a history-making flight to the International Space Station (May 30).
By SERA KING / Headline Surfer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Oak Hill resident Jackie Brantley summed up her thoughts on liftoff of the first manned launch in nearly a decade since the shuttle program was grounded with Saturday's launch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft with two NASA astronauts on board and bound for the International Space Station.
"It was beautiful," Brantley told Headline Surfer, shortly after a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 3:22 p.m.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft atop the rocket’s upper stage separated 12 minutes later after achieving low Earth orbit, to the delight of the tens of thousans with a bird's eye view on both sides of the Volusia and Flagler County lines and millions more electroniclly on live TV news broadcasts or online.
The successful launch was a respite from the dreadfulness of the ongoing rioting in Minneapolis and dozens of cities across the nation in the wake of the George Floyd homicide while in police custody on Memorial Day, and from the lingering COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed 371,855 lives globally - 105,634 in the US, the most of any country.
So too were top brass responsible for the launch.
“I’m really quite overcome with emotion,” said SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk, founder the company in 2002, at a post-launch press conference. “It’s been 18 years working towards this goal. It’s hard to believe that’s happened.”
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine echoed Musk's sentiment in post-launch remarks on NASA TV.
“This has been a long time coming,” Bridenstine said “It’s been nine years since we’ve launched American astronauts on American rockets from American soil, and now it’s done. We have done it.”
The launch took place on the second attempt for the Demo-2 mission, after the first attempt Wednesday was scrubbed less than 20 minutes before the scheduled liftoff because of inclement weather.
The Weather thisd time around was unsettled for much of the day, with only a 50% chance of acceptable conditionsd for liftoff, butonditions improved enough that the launch was able to proceed.