NASA-SpaceX mission: Falcon 9 returns to earth after dropping Crew Dragon off in orbit

American astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken made the ‘history-making’ liftoff to the International Space Station on a commercially built Crew Dragon capsule carried to the orbit by Falcon 9, which has now landed back on the earth. While there are still at least 19 hours until the space veterans reach their destination, all initial stages of NASA-SpaceX’s ‘Launch America’ program of sending humans into space on American turf for the first time in nine years have been completed. After entering the orbit, Hurley thanked the crew members for Falcon’s “incredible flight to space". The NASA-SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule blasted off from Kennedy Space Center's historic Launch Pad 39A on May 30 at 3:22pm EDT. Now all eyes are now on the 'safety' of crew members who are 'flying free'.

Watch Flacon 9’s return to earth:

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70-30 launch

NASA was previously looking at a 50 per cent chance of the weather being in a favourable condition on May 30 for the rescheduled NASA-SpaceX Crew Dragon launch. However, even though the latest weather update stated there was a 70 per cent chance of good weather, the Crew Dragon mission proceeded as planned. After millions were disappointed with poor atmospheric conditions forcing the historic ‘Launch America’ mission to be aborted on May 27, the chances of the launch being successful on Saturday had remained equally grim until the latest weather clearance.

Last time, the mission was cancelled just over 17 minutes before the countdown was set to begin, but the mission crew has said that the enthusiasm has not been diminished with the scrub. 

SpaceX is the first private company to be a part of the space program, its CEO Elon Musk had hailed the accomplishment as a “dream come true”. The two US astronauts were seen smiling, waving and giving the thumbs up as they debuted in the SpaceX spacesuit yet again after the mission was scrubbed last time and got readied to board the commercially built rocket and spacecraft. Musk also noted that the mission is not only momentous for him, but also for ‘everyone' at the SpaceX.

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Image Source: AP