20201776 Club
Hurley and Behnken ride a SpaceX Falcon 9 off pad 39A; America has astronauts in orbit again
The first U.S. crew to leave Earth on an American rocket since 2011, they lift off aboard a capsule they named Endeavour, ending nine years of buying seats from Russia at up to $80 million each.
Nine years after the last Space Shuttle touched down, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken climbed into a capsule they had named Endeavour and rode a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket off Launch Complex 39A on May 30, 2020 — the first American crew to leave Earth on an American rocket since 2011. The flight was also the first crewed orbital mission ever operated by a commercial company, ending a stretch during which NASA paid Russia up to $80 million per seat on Soyuz. Sixty-four days later, Endeavour splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, the first water landing for American astronauts since 1975…
