Set against the dark backdrop of an ongoing global pandemic and a week of domestic unrest in the United States, SpaceX astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley took to the sky today to buoy America’s spirits and hopes for a brighter future of renewed space exploration.
The two astronauts of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft thundered clear of the launch gantry on a tail of crackling flame from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch, seen live across media and around the world, lifted off smoothly at 3:22 PM EDT Saturday on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.