SpaceX Successfully Launches First Astronauts On Re-Used Rocket

SpaceX has announced another successful human space to its credit at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, after a one-day delay caused by high winds, SpaceX successfully launched humans into space for the third time in less than a year on Friday morning riding aboard a used spacecraft.

The Dragon took off aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 5:49 AM EDT (2:49 AM EDT). Onboard were four astronauts, including NASA’s Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, as well as JAXA’s Akihiko Hoshide and the ESA’s Thomas Pesquet.

After the SpaceX Crew-1 operation last year, this was the second official astronaut delivery mission for NASA.

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The Crew-2 included the use of two re-flown components in the spacecraft system, including the first stage booster, which was used during the crew-1 launch and the Dragon capsule, which was used for SpaceX’s first-ever human spaceflight, the final demonstration mission of its spacecraft certification program for NASA, which flew Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the ISS.

The CEO Elon Musk noted that you wouldn’t want to be on the “first flight of an airplane when it comes out of the factory” during a conversation with XPRIZE’s Peter Diamandis on Thursday evening, SpaceX has characterized the use of re-flown elements as arguably even safer than using new ones.

The Crew Dragon in its target transfer orbit will be making its way to rendezvous with the Space Station, which will take just under 24 hours. It’ll be docking with the station early tomorrow morning, attaching to a docking port that was just cleared earlier this month when SpaceX’s other Crew Dragon relocated to another port on the ISS earlier this month.

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This launch also included a recovery attempt for the booster, with a landing at sea using SpaceX’s drone landing pad. That went as planned, meaning this booster which has already flown two different sets of human astronauts, could be used to fly yet another after refurbishment.

SpaceX’s Commercial Crew program with NASA continues to be the key success story in the agency’s move to partner with more private companies for its research and space exploration missions. NASA also recently tapped SpaceX to develop the human landing system for its Artemis program, which will return humans to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo program, and which will use SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft. For SpaceX’s human spaceflight program, the next big milestone will be its first flight of a mission made up entirely of paying private citizens, which is currently set to take place this fall.