SpaceX Crew Dragon 'Endeavour' Launches Four Astronauts to Space Station

Four astronauts aboard Crew Dragon Endeavour launch. (SpaceX)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Four astronauts launched aboard a reusable SpaceX Crew Dragon early Friday from America's Space Coast to begin a nearly six month stay aboard the International Space Station.

This SpaceX Crew-2 mission is the second operational commercial crewed space launch. It also marks the third time Americans have launched into space from the U.S. in last 11 months.

Riding a top a Falcon 9 rocket, the crew dragon Endeavour lifted off at 5:49:02 a.m. EDT, from the Kennedy Space Center. The Falcon 9's instantaneous launch time occurred as the space station orbited 258 miles high above the Indian Ocean.

The candle stick rocket soared up the east coast of the United States. Nearly three minutes after launch, Falcon's spent first stage separated and the second stage immediately took over.

Mars Helicopter Ingenuity Flies Higher During Second Flight

Mars helicopter Ingenuity begins its second flight on April 22. (NASA)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA flew for a second time the first powered aircraft on Mars Thursday demonstrating that humans can control flight within the planet's ultra thin atmosphere.

The tissue box-size Mars helicopter Ingenuity transmitted a few images during its flight to its host, the Perseverance rover. Located 215 feet away, Perseverance transmitted the final commands from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory one hour before the flight.

At an exact moment, the copter's twin rotor blades were spun up to 2,537 rpm. A final system's check was performed as the blades cut through Mars' ultra thin atmosphere.

Likened to the Wright Brothers first powered flight, Ingenuity took off from the Martian surface at 5:33 a.m. EDT, and stayed aloft for 51.9 seconds. The controlled flight flew a distance of seven feet and up to an altitude of 16 feet.

“The helicopter came to a stop, hovered in place, and made turns to point its camera in different directions,” Ingenuity’s chief pilot Håvard Grip said on Thursday. “Then it headed back to the center of the airfield to land."

Wings in Space: Columbia Launches the Space Shuttle Era

The first space shuttle flight lifts-off on April 12, 1981. (NASA)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A new era of human spaceflight began in April 1981, as two NASA astronauts lifted-off aboard the first reusable winged spacecraft to set sail on the ocean of space.

Nothing is more associated with the 1980s as the space shuttle. In fact, Columbia's maiden launch was the first video ever played when MTV launched four months later.

Astronauts John W. Young and Robert L. Crippen served as the flight crew for the first space shuttle flight. Launched on April 12, 1981, the historic mission of shuttle Columbia allowed NASA to begin

Young was a veteran of two Gemini and two Apollo space missions, and Crippen was a rookie who had supported the Skylab missions. Each trained for nearly four years in preparation for this flight.

It was Young who was working the surface of the Moon in 1972 when NASA informed him that the space shuttle was approved for development. “The country needs that shuttle mighty bad,” Young replied.

NASA Astronaut, Two Russians Launch on 'Fast-Track' to Space Station

A Russian Soyuz 2.1a lifts-off with a new crew bound for the space station. (NASA)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts lifted-off from Kazakhstan on Friday on a fast trip to reach the International Space Station.

American Mark T. Vande Hei and Russian's Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov are scheduled to spend nearly six months in space.

Lift-off of the Soyuz 2.1a rocket occurred on time at 3:42:40.9 a.m. EDT (12:42 p.m. local), from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Nine minutes later, the crewed Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft arrived in an initial orbit.