Madhurima
WASHINGTON: History was made as Elon Musk owned Space X on Saturday, May 31 sent two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) onboard via the Falcon 9 rocket which is reusable in nature.
The NASA astronauts were carried in the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. NASA said in a statement that Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken, the two astronauts who were on their way to the orbiting laboratory in the space have safely reached the orbit via the spacecraft.
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It happened for the first time that astronauts of the US origin got sent into space from US soil since the year 2011.
Falcon 9 lifts off from historic Launch Complex 39A and sends Crew Dragon to orbit on its first flight with @NASA astronauts to the @space_station pic.twitter.com/UOoaKiQaFk
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 31, 2020
It also was for the first time that US astronauts got sent into space by a private company. It signalled the end to the US dependence of the space technology of Russia.
The spacecraft lifted off from the Kennedy Space Centre of NASA which is situated in Florida. It is also the first site which was used for the first moon landing in the year 1969.
Lauren Lyons, an engineer from Space X mentioned, "I can't believe it with my own eyes. I'm so grateful they're up there." She is known for frequently hosting mission webcasts for SpaceX.
The journey is said to take place for 19 hours and the astronauts will reach the space station at 10:30 ET (eastern time) i.e. 8:00 pm IST.
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Tests will also be performed on Crew Dragon apart from conducting research and other tasks with the space station crew.
