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SpaceX Captures Flag In Cosmic Contest
< < Back toThe first astronauts launched by SpaceX declared victory Monday in NASA’s cosmic capture-the-flag game.
They quickly claimed the prize left behind at the International Space Station nearly a decade ago by the last crew to launch from the U.S. SpaceX, you got the flag,” NASA astronaut Doug Hurley said a day after arriving at the space station.
Hurley showed off the small U.S. flag during a news conference and again in a linkup with SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
The flag flew on the first space shuttle flight in 1981 and the final one in 2011. Hurley was on that last shuttle crew. It was an added incentive for Elon Musk’s SpaceX company and Boeing, competing to be the first private company to launch a crew to the space station.
An estimated 100,000 people _ suppliers, vendors, engineers, etc. _ were responsible for Saturday’s flawless launch of test pilots Hurley and Behnken aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center.
The Dragon capsule, also built and owned by SpaceX, docked at the space station Sunday.
Saturday’s liftoff of NASA astronauts was the first from the U.S. in nine years. Boeing’s first astronaut flight isn’t expected until next year. The crew will include Chris Ferguson, commander of the last shuttle flight who now works for Boeing.