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{Photograph} by Gregg Newton/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
NASA and SpaceX completed fairly a feat on Saturday. They launched U.S. astronauts from American soil for the primary time since 2011.
The 2 crew members, Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley—affectionately known as Bob and Doug by their colleagues—had been joined by a 3rd crew member, and it lit up the web.
The third crew member—or the stowaway—was an opulent toy dinosaur the crew known as their “zero g indicator.” The stuffed animal was seen floating within the cabin of the Dragon house capsule after launch.
The SpaceX retailer had a web page providing the dino, however the web page crashed. Apparently, customers wanted to be very early to scoop up their very own zero g indicator.
It shouldn’t be a shock. Launch America—the NASA TV broadcast—reported that greater than 10 million folks had been watching the published at one level.
Newbie explorers can proceed to look at the mission on NASA TV. On Sunday, the ship will robotically rendezvous with the worldwide house station round 10:29 a.m. Japanese time.
Behnken and Hurley may even ultimately converse on the published. Mission management has knowledgeable the pair there are already questions in regards to the dinosaur.
SpaceX isn’t publicly traded, however its “chief engineer” is
Tesla
(ticker: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk. He’s having fairly a 12 months. SpaceX’s accomplishment is, frankly, superb. And Tesla stock is up nearly 100% 12 months to this point, crushing the
Dow Jones Industrial Common
and
S&P 500
over the identical span.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com