Astronauts will ride aboard the vessel in the first manned U.S. space mission in nearly 10 years. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - With the weather looking up, SpaceX and NASA officials vowed Tuesday to keep crew safety the top priority for the nation's first astronaut launch to orbit in nearly a decade. RELATED: Who are the astronauts that will embark on the first manned mission into space in nearly ten years? Veteran NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken were set to make history Wednesday afternoon, riding SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule to the International Space Station on a test flight.
SpaceX was on the cusp of becoming the first private company to put astronauts in orbit, something achieved by just three countries —