News

As Boeing falters, can SpaceX go where six far-reaching Apollo missions went before?

Four private astronauts blasted into space early on Sept. 10 in a modified SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, kicking off the company’s five-day Polaris Dawn mission, which aims to test new spacesuit designs and conduct the first private spacewalk.

The crew, a billionaire entrepreneur, a retired military fighter pilot, and two SpaceX employees, lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida about 5:23 a.m. EST.

The capsule reached orbit about nine and a half minutes later, and the crew batted around a small plush astronaut toy dog as free fall – zero gravity – became apparent. Crew Dragon separated from its support trunk three minutes after that, with onboard cameras revealing a spectacular view of the capsule over the sunlit Earth.

Previous ArticleNext Article