SpaceX Launch

May 27, 2020

Later today (9 pm BST 27/5/2020), weather permitting, the first crewed rocket launch from the US in almost a decade will take place from the famous Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the site originally built for the Apollo space program.

This historic launch is the final major test of the SpaceX human spaceflight system, enabling Elon Musk’s private company to be certified by NASA for operational crew missions to and from the International Space Station.

Since the Space Shuttle program ended nearly ten years ago, NASA has been unable to send astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) from launches on its soil, instead, spending $86million per astronaut to fly on the Russian, Soyuz spacecraft.

SpaceX state that the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft will be the safest, most advanced systems ever built and NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is a turning point for America’s future in space exploration which will lay the groundwork for future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

You can watch the launch on NASA’s YouTube channel.

We look forward to watching the launch later today.