Nasa spacex launch: success as elon musk’s spacex ‘dragon’ capsule

SpaceX launched the flight to the International Space Station on Sunday. It is NASA’s first full-fledged mission launching a crew into orbit aboard a privately owned spacecraft. SpaceX’s

Crew Dragon capsule, lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 00:27 GMT on Monday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA said it is now entering a new era where routine

astronaut journeys to low-Earth orbit are being done by privately owned providers. The crew is made up of three astronauts from the US and on from Japan. The four astronauts are Michael

Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, the Japanese space agency, Jaxa, astronaut Soichi Noguchi. Mr Noguchi will become the third person in history to leave Earth in three different

types of spacecraft. US President Donald Trump took to Twitter to respond to NASA’s launch, claiming that the space agency was a “disaster” before he took office. He wrote: “A great launch!

@NASA was a closed up disaster when we took over. “Now it is again the “hottest”, most advanced, space center in the world, by far!” But the Washington Post’s Fact Checker chief writer,

Glenn Kessler, responded saying Mr Trump’s tweet was “false”. He tweeted: “NASA was not a disaster when Trump took over. Obama set in motion the process that led to the successful SpaceX

launch with astronauts. He decided to send crews via commercial spacecraft in 2011, in the face of congressional opposition.” READ MORE: NASA CHIEF TO STEP DOWN FOLLOWING DONALD TRUMP'S

ELECTION LOSS The launch to the space station was originally planned to take place on Saturday. However, NASA official said it was postponed by a day following forecasts of gusty winds that

would have made a return landing of the Falcon 9’s reusable booster stage hard. NASA has called the lift off its first “operational” mission for a rocket and crew-vehicle system which took

10 years to launch. On Friday Benji Reed, SpaceX senior director of human space flight programs, said: "This is the culmination of years of work and effort from a lot of people, and a

lot of time. "We have built what I would call one of the safest launch vehicles and spacecraft ever." SpaceX CEO Elon Musk did not watch the launch from the Kennedy Space Center

control room after he said he “most likely” mas a moderate case of COVID-19. NASA and SpaceX undertook contact-tracing and said that Mr Musk had not been in contact with anyone who

interacted with the astronauts. On Friday, NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said: "Our astronauts have been in quarantine for weeks, and they should not have had contact with anybody. They

should be in good shape." After the launch, Mr Bridenstine said the mission represents a move from tests to operational flights. During a press conference, he added: “This is a great

day for America and a great day for Japan and we look forward to many years of partnership not just in lower earth orbit but all the way to the moon.”