NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission launches

SpaceX launches first astronauts on a reused rocket

The four astronauts on SpaceX's Crew-2 mission are headed for the ISS after becoming the first people to launch on a rocket that has already flown to space.

The SpaceX Crew-2 mission lifted off at 5:49 a.m. EDT to carry four astronauts to the International Space Station.
Photograph by Michael Seeley, National Geographic

In the the pre-dawn hours at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, after a one-day delay caused by high winds, SpaceX successfully launched humans into space from U.S. shores for the third time in less than a year.

But this time, the astronauts sailed into orbit atop a reused Falcon 9 rocket booster—the same booster that sent the Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station last November. They are also riding aboard a used spacecraft: the same Dragon capsule, called Endeavour, that NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley flew during their Demo-2 test flight last May. On that mission, Behnken and Hurley became the first

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