“They have a long way to go but that’s a very dangerous part of it there,” Trump said. “I’m so proud of the people, of NASA, public and private. When you see a sight like that, it’s incredible. When you hear that sound — the roar — you can imagine how dangerous it is.”
The launch and the initial phases of the journey proceeded smoothly. The main rocket booster flew back to Earth and stuck the landing on a drone ship -- a once-remarkable feat that has become routine for SpaceX.
The two astronauts joined the Expedition 63 crew members already in residence on the space station. Their voyage, known as Demo-2, is the final major test of SpaceX’s human spaceflight system before the National Aeronautics and Space Administration certifies it to fly working missions to the space station.
Boeing Co. is also preparing to carry people to the orbiting lab as part of the same Commercial Crew program at NASA.
Weather Clears
The SpaceX launch was originally slated for May 27, but was scrubbed due to bad weather. While rain showers earlier Saturday briefly raked launch complex 39A, the weather cleared and SpaceX loaded fuel onto the Falcon 9 rocket and moved through a final check of its systems.
Gwynne Shotwell, the company’s president and chief operating officer, said she was “super-nervous, stomach-in-throat,” in a television interview from SpaceX headquarters minutes before lift-off. Shotwell and her team monitored the mission from the company’s control center in Hawthorne, California, wearing masks and sitting at carefully spaced terminals.
Successfully carrying humans to space would mark the latest breakthrough for a company known for setting audacious goals. In the decade since the first Falcon 9 rocket reached orbit, SpaceX has eclipsed rivals like Europe’s Arianespace and United Launch Alliance, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin Corp. venture, to grab the lead of commercial launches.
“Launching satellites is nice and we got to bring in more money than we spend, this is important, but ultimately this is life beyond earth,” Musk said at a briefing after the launch, where he recalled how he developed SpaceX with funds he got from PayPal. “Hopefully this is the first step on that journey” for “life becoming multi-planetary for the first time.”
Musk’s space company is valued at about $36 billion, and its bravado and reusable rockets have inspired other entrepreneurs. The competition could get fierce this decade as Blue Origin, founded and funded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, Northrop Grumman Corp., ULA and Sierra Nevada Corp. all bring new spacecraft to market.
‘Numerous Providers’
At least that’s the dream for Bridenstine, the NASA administrator. The U.S. space agency is seeking to change the notion that government must create both demand and supply for spaceflight. He said at a post-launch briefing that NASA is seeking a business model where it’s not the only customer.