CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - With thunder threatening a delay, two NASA astronauts made their way to the launch pad for the liftoff of a SpaceX rocket ship Wednesday on a history-making flight to the International Space Station that was seen as a giant leap forward for the booming business of commercial space travel.
Space veterans Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken were scheduled to ride into orbit aboard the brand-new Dragon capsule on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, lifting off at 4:33 p.m.
EDT from the same launch pad used by the Apollo moon missions a half-century ago. RELATED: NASA, SpaceX hope to end 9-year spaceflight gap with historic Demo-2 mission Astronauts will ride aboard the vessel in the first manned U.S.