But Elon Musk’s SpaceX defied expectations – and on Wednesday hopes to make history by ferrying two NASA astronauts into space, the first crewed flight from US soil in nine long years. NASA’s Commercial Crew program, aimed at developing private spacecraft to transport American astronauts in to space, began under Barack Obama. Nine years later, SpaceX – founded by Musk, the outspoken South African entrepreneur who also built PayPal and Tesla, in 2002 — is ready to launch. The launch has taken five years longer than planned to come about, but even with the delays SpaceX has beaten Boeing to the punch. “There was huge skepticism,” Hubbard, who met Musk before the creation of SpaceX and also chairs a SpaceX safety advisory panel, recalled.

Source: Punch May 24, 2020 07:30 UTC