The Falcon9 rocket took off from Kennedy Space Centre

 

SpaceX launch: All you need to know about NASA’s plan to involve private players in space exploration

Republican party backed Jim Bridenstine,took office as the space agency’s administrator in 2018. He told the Washington Post in an interview that NASA will end up saving money by “leveraging private industry capacity, innovation, and competitiveness”

The Falcon9 rocket took off from Kennedy Space Centre with three Americans and one Japanese, the second crew to be launched by SpaceX. The Dragon capsule on top, named Resilience by the crew in light of this year’s many challenges, most notably Covid-19, was due to reach the space station late Monday and remain there until spring.

Almost two years after SpaceX launched a mannequin in a spacesuit seated in a Tesla Roadster aboard a Falcon Heavy testflight, the company owned by billionaire Elon Musk launched four living astronauts to the ISS.

“This is truly a commercial launch vehicle,” Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator, said during a post-launch news conference, “and we’re grateful to our partners at SpaceX for providing it.”