After a nine-year gap, the U.S. is once again flying humans into space on its own. The big moment was supposed to happen this past Wednesday, when NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley were scheduled to board the Crew Dragon capsule and take off from Cape Canaveral's historic Launchpad 39A atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Bad weather aborted that launch, but NASA and SpaceX are trying again today.
The event (being covered live via NASA and via National Geographic's Launch America event) is repeatedly touted in the media and in agency press releases as "the first launch from U.S. soil since 2011." It's more than that, though. It represents a new kind of public-private partnership, with SpaceX building the rocket, the capsule and even the spacesuits on behalf of NASA. It portends a future of cheaper, more efficient spaceflight — and, we enthusiasts hope, much broader and more ...
