#HTE

The space shuttle Endeavour, seen blasting through the clouds during its final launch in May 2011. This was the second to last time American astronauts traveled to space from US soil (the space shuttle Atlantis took its final flight two months later). That nine-year drought is scheduled to end today with SpaceX and NASA’s Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station, set to lift off from Launch Pad 39-A in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 4:33 pm Eastern Time. NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken will be the first astronauts blasted into orbit by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, bringing the company into the same category as Russia, the USA, and China, which sent astronauts to space in that order.

See more here: https://bit.ly/2TIcnDw

Source imagery: NASA