And we have liftoff ! Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley are currently on their merry way to the International Space Station ( ISS ) after the historic first launch of NASA ’s Commercial Crew Program onboard a SpaceX rocket . At 3:22 pm EDT , the two astronauts safely and successfully left the Kennedy Space Center , Florida . They are now on a 19 - hr journey around the Earth to the ISS . This is the first escape of the Crew Dragon space vehicle and only the ninth eccentric of spacecraft to establish into orbit .
Though this is the firstCommercial Crewlaunch , this is not Behnken and Hurley ’s first trip to outer space . They have been in orbit doubly already as they are both veterans of the Space Shuttle platform . They have not , however , been in blank together .
This is the first launch from American dirt since theSpace Shuttle Atlantiswas go to sleep in July 2011 . Symbolically , Behnken and Hurley took off from Launch Complex 39A , where Atlantis flee from almost nine old age ago . Piloting the last Space Shuttle was none other than Hurley . It is also where all but one of the crewed Apollo commission launched from .
The astronauts are expected to bob with the ISS at about 10.30 am EDT tomorrow dawn , Sunday , May 31 and the hatch between the capsule and the space station should be open roughly two and bit hours subsequently . The astronauts will outride with the current appendage of Expedition 63 for as piddling at 30 day or up to a maximum of 119 years . They will be back at the modish on September 23 , splashing somewhere in the North Atlantic .
This is the first crewed flying of the Commercial Crew Program , develop by NASA in partnership with private caller Boeing and SpaceX. The aim of this mission is to reduce the agency ’s cost to get at scurvy - Earth orbit and let the focus to shift to human mission in deep space . Principally , this means a rejoinder to the Moon with theArtemis program .
The rocket and the space capsule were both developed by Elon Musk ’s SpaceX , and had their uncrewed maiden over ocean trip last year . Since the retreat of the Space Shuttle , NASA has bought butt on the Russian Soyuz rockets to establish into space at a cost of $ 80 million per seat . The office investment in the Commercial Crew Program tolerate NASA to bear less than a third of that toll .
The Commercial Crew Program has been controversial and both companies and NASA have dealt withdelays and safety concerns . It pack SpaceX six years and three flunk launches to get to this point . Boeing ’s own difficulties pushed their wait crewed launching date to some time next year .
However , thanks to today ’s historical launch , the direction American astronauts access space has deepen forever .
