CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.\u00a0 \u2014 America\u2019s newest capsule for astronauts rocketed Saturday toward the International Space Station on a high-stakes test flight by SpaceX.<\/p>\n
The only passenger was a life-size test dummy, named Ripley after the lead character in the \u201cAlien\u201d movies. SpaceX needs to nail the debut of its crew Dragon capsule<\/a> before putting people on board later this year.<\/p>\n This latest, flashiest Dragon is on a fast track to reach the space station Sunday morning, just 27 hours after liftoff.<\/p>\n It will spend five days docked to the orbiting outpost, before making a retro-style splashdown in the Atlantic next Friday \u2014 all vital training for the next space demo, possibly this summer, when two astronauts strap in.<\/p>\n SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk said the launch was \u201csuper stressful\u201d to watch, but he\u2019s hopeful the capsule will be ready to carry people later this year.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be frank, I\u2019m a little emotionally exhausted,\u201d Musk told reporters barely an hour after liftoff. \u201cWe have to dock to the station. We have to come back, but so far it\u2019s worked \u2026 we\u2019ve passed the riskiest items.\u201d<\/p>\n NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine called it \u201ca big night for the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re on the precipice of launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil again for the first time since the retirement of the space shuttles in 2011,\u201d said Bridenstine, who got a special tour of the launch pad on the eve of launch, by Musk.<\/p>\n An estimated 5,000 NASA and contractor employees, tourists and journalists gathered in the wee hours at Kennedy Space Center with the SpaceX launch team, as the Falcon 9 rocket blasted off before dawn from the same spot where Apollo moon rockets and space shuttles once soared. Across the country at SpaceX Mission Control in Hawthorne, California, company employees went wild, cheering every step of the way until the capsule successfully reached orbit.<\/p>\n Looking on from Kennedy\u2019s Launch Control were the two NASA astronauts who will strap in as early as July for the second space demo, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken. Shortly after liftoff, Musk asked them, \u201cHow do you feel about flying on it?\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s been eight years since Hurley and three other astronauts flew the last space shuttle mission, and human launches from Florida ceased.<\/p>\n NASA turned to private companies, SpaceX and Boeing, and has provided them $8 billion to build and operate\u00a0crew capsules<\/a>\u00a0to ferry astronauts to and from the space station. Now Russian rockets are the only way to get astronauts to the 250-mile-high outpost. Soyuz tickets have skyrocketed over the years; NASA currently pays $82 million per seat.<\/p>\n Boeing aims to conduct the first test flight of its Starliner capsule in April, with astronauts on board possibly in August.<\/p>\n Bridenstine said he\u2019s confident that astronauts will soar on a Dragon or Starliner \u2014 or both \u2014 by year\u2019s end. But he stressed there\u2019s no rush.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not in a space race,\u201d he said. \u201cThat race is over. We went to the moon and we won. It\u2019s done. Now we\u2019re in a position where we can take our time and make sure we get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n SpaceX already has made 16 trips to the space station using cargo Dragons. The white crew Dragon is slightly bigger \u2014 27 feet tip to tip \u2014 and considerably fancier and safer. Musk said the redesigned capsule has \u201chardly a part in common\u201d with its predecessor.<\/p>\n It features four seats, three windows, touch-screen computer displays and life-support equipment, as well as eight abort engines to pull the capsule to safety in the event of a launch emergency. Solar cells are mounted on the spacecraft for electrical power, as opposed to the protruding solar wings on cargo Dragons.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an incredibly sleek looking vehicle from the inside and it\u2019s very easy to operate,\u201d Hurley told reporters just hours before liftoff. He marvels at how the Dragon has just 30 buttons and touch screens, compared with the space shuttle cockpit\u2019s 2,000 switches and circuit breakers.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/thenypost.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/03\/190302-spacex-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=300)
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