Nasa’s 1st US astronaut launch in years takes place TODAY – as Elon Musk SpaceX ship prepares for historic tak - The Sun

The pair will spend 24 hours in orbit before docking with the International Space Station roughly 250 miles above Earth.

Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon will lift off from Launch Complex 39A – the same place Saturn V launched humanity to the Moon and from where the first and final Space Shuttle missions lifted off pic.twitter.com/wOSsbCRqi7.

Nasa has depended on Russia's space agency Roscosmos for its manned launches since the Space Shuttle programme was shut down in 2011.

NASA's SpaceX Crew Dragon mission is cleared to proceed toward liftoff.

Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon are vertical on the launch pad pic.twitter.com/2nw9h0jxde.

Two astronauts, Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley, will be making the trip to the International Space Station (ISS).

Nasa astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley will make their way to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at the Kennedy Space Centre on May 27.

Hurley and Behnken will take a special elevator up 230ft to a SpaceX Crew Draon capsule atop the awaiting rocket.

Here's what you need to know about the International Space Station...

Once in orbit, the Crew Dragon capsule carrying Hurley and Behnken will separate from the rocket booster.

"Crew Dragon will accelerate its two passengers to approximately 17,000 mph and put it on an intercept course with the International Space Station," Nasa said.

"Once in orbit, the crew and SpaceX mission control will verify the spacecraft is performing as intended by testing the environmental control system, the displays and control system and the maneuvering thrusters, among other things.".

About 24 hours after launch, Crew Dragon will be in position to dock with the space station.

"They will perform tests on Crew Dragon in addition to conducting research and other tasks with the space station crew.".

The Crew Dragon capsule will remain docked on the ISS until it's needed to take astronauts back to Earth.

The US space agency last fired one of its own astronauts into space in 2011.

However, multiple delays to its development schedule have left the space agency without a way to carry out manned space flights for years.

The Crew Dragon capsule was due to launch astronauts for the first time last year but the flight was pushed back after a safety test resulted in an unmanned capsule exploding in April 2019.

Musk hoped the technology would make flying and operating space flights far cheaper.

SpaceX currently uses its reusable rockets to fly cargo to the International Space Station for Nasa.

In other news, a tropical storm grounded a key SpaceX launch twice last week.