SpaceX, NASA successfully launch first American spacecraft capable of carrying humans into space since 2011

Crew Dragon launch.
(Image credit: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

A new era of human spaceflight may soon be upon us.

SpaceX and NASA teamed up to successfully launch the Falcon 9 rocket, which safely delivered the spacecraft Crew Dragon into orbit from NASA's Kennedy Space Flight Center in Florida on Saturday morning.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.