SpaceX Launches First Uncrewed Crew Dragon Capsule Into Orbit
SpaceX successfully launches its first Crew Dragon spacecraft on an unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station. This milestone mission paves the way for American astronauts to launch from U.S. soil later this summer.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches into space early Saturday morning, boosting the first Crew Dragon spacecraft into orbit on an unpiloted test flight. This historic launch from the Kennedy Space Center marks the first time a commercially developed capsule flies toward the International Space Station with the intention of carrying astronauts in the future.
The 215-foot-tall rocket generates 1.7 million pounds of thrust and climbs smoothly into the orbital plane of the space station. Astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken watch from the launch control room as they prepare to board the next Crew Dragon for a planned mid-summer flight, which stands as the first launch of American astronauts from U.S. soil since the shuttle program ended in 2011.
The current unpiloted mission serves as a critical test of the spacecraft's systems before NASA trusts it with human lives. Throughout the week, the capsule autonomously rendezvous and docks with the space station before it returns to Earth with a hypersonic atmospheric plunge and a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.