SpaceX launches astronauts into space on historic mission - WUSA9.com

— A rocket ship built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company thundered away from Earth with two Americans on Saturday, ushering in a new era in commercial space travel and putting the United States back in the business of launching astronauts into orbit from U.S.

“Maybe there’s an opportunity here for America to maybe pause and look up and see a bright, shining moment of hope at what the future looks like, that the United States of America can do extraordinary things even in difficult times,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said before launch.

With the on-time liftoff by the 260-foot rocket, SpaceX, founded by Musk, the Tesla electric-car visionary, became the first private company to launch people into orbit, a feat achieved previously by only three governments: the U.S., Russia and China.

Ever since it retired the space shuttle in 2011, NASA has relied on Russian spaceships launched from Kazakhstan to take U.S.

astronauts to and from the space station.

RELATED: Try this SpaceX simulator and dock with the International Space Station.

Musk said earlier in the week that the project is aimed at “reigniting the dream of space and getting people fired up about the future.”.

Hurley piloted the shuttle on the last launch of astronauts from Kennedy, on July 8, 2011.

In preparation for Saturday's flight, SpaceX sent up a Dragon capsule with only a test dummy aboard last year, and it docked smoothly at the orbiting outpost on autopilot, then returned to Earth in a splashdown.

“What Elon Musk has done for the American space program is he has brought vision and inspiration that we hadn’t had” since the shuttle’s retirement, Bridenstine said.

The mission is technically considered by SpaceX and NASA to be a test flight.

The next SpaceX voyage to the space station, set for the end of August, will have a full, four-person crew: three Americans and one Japanese

A SpaceX capsule exploded on the test stand last year