Watch this space today. Sorry, that space.
This afternoon, you’ll be able to catch a very special sight indeed. The historic Demo-2 manned mission from SpaceX and NASA is sending passengers from Cape Canaveral in Florida to the International Space Station (ISS) via special rocket Falcon 9.
You can catch the launch live online here, courtesy of NASA TV, which is due to take off at 4:33pm EDT today, May 27!
Billionaire Elon Musk’s company SpaceX are combining with space giants NASA for the first launch of NASA astronauts on a commercial spacecraft. It is also the first set of astronauts launched into space from U.S. soil in nine years.
The Falcon 9 rocket will take off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, beginning a 19-hour voyage to the International Space Station. The so-called Crew Dragon spacecraft will feature two NASA astronauts; Robert Behnken, 48, and Douglas Hurley, 53. Upon arrival at the ISS, the astronauts will spend somewhere between one and four months living and working.
This mission is acting as a demonstration for SpaceX to prove their ability to safely ship astronauts to and from the International Space Station. If successful, they may be certified by NASA’s program to carry out long-term manned missions to space.