SpaceX launches astronauts

NASA astronauts are heading to space from U.S. soil for the first time in nine years aboard SpaceX's Dragon capsule, the maiden crewed flight of the innovative spacecraft. The mission, which is sending Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station, is a bold new venture for the space agency's plan to allow commercial companies to take its astronauts into low-Earth orbit. They launched from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A at 3:22 p.m. ET as they rode SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket toward a rendezvous with the station in about 19 hours. On Wednesday, storms and a tornado warning upended a launch attempt, with the veteran space shuttle astronauts suited up and strapped into the Dragon before the mission was scrubbed. (Source: NPR, 05/30/20)