SpaceX ready to launch astronauts into space for the first time

SpaceX ready to launch astronauts into space for the first time

But Elon Musk's SpaceX defied expectations - and on Wednesday hopes to make history by ferrying two NASA astronauts into space, the first crewed flight from US soil in nine long years.. The general public, in a nod to virus restrictions, has been told to watch via a livestream as Crew Dragon is launched by a Falcon 9 rocket toward the International Space Station.. In the 22 years since the first components of the ISS were launched, only spacecraft developed by NASA and by the Russian space agency have carried crews there.. NASA used the illustrious shuttle program - huge, extremely complex, winged ships that carried dozens of astronauts into space for three decades.. NASA has awarded SpaceX more than three billion dollars in contracts since 2011 to build the spacecraft.. Since 2012, SpaceX has been resupplying the ISS for NASA, thanks to the cargo version of the Dragon capsule.. "We envision a day in the future where we have a dozen space stations in low Earth orbit..