Historic SpaceX launch sends NASA astronauts into space

"...three, two, one, zero. Ignition. Liftoff."

And with that - history was made, Saturday, as billionaire Elon Musk’s private rocket company ‘SpaceX’ launched two Americans into orbit...

The first time a commercially developed vehicle has carried Americans into space.

And - the mission marks the first spaceflight of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil in nine years.

After a farewell by the astronauts on land, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sent Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on a 19-hour ride aboard the company's newly designed Crew Dragon capsule bound for the International Space Station.

Just moments before liftoff, Hurley said: “SpaceX we’re go for launch. Let’s light this candle” - paraphrasing the words uttered on the launch pad by the first American sent to space in 1961.

President Donald Trump - who watched live and in-person - hailed Saturday’s launch as quote ‘the beginning’ - saying there would eventually be flights to Mars.

For Musk, the launch represents a milestone for the reusable rockets his company pioneered in order to make spaceflight less costly and more frequent.

NASA’s Hurley and Behnken are under contract to fly with SpaceX, and are expected to remain at the International Space Station for several weeks, assisting a short-handed crew already aboard it.