It was the historic launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon capsule to the International Space Station. If the mission is successful, in the next few days SpaceX will become the first private company to rendezvous with the ISS (Check out the mission plan here). It's a pretty big deal for space exploration and is paving the way for future manned missons, which SpaceX are already planning. Huzzah!
It was very exciting watching it live, especially after the last minute abort on Saturday. The atmosphere at mission control was obviously electric, and there was much cheering from the crowd gathered at SpaceX. I have to admit I welled up a bit seeing the solar array deploy, such was the excitement onscreen. I also may have cheered out loud when the guy said 'Falcon 9 has cleared the tower.'
This is one of my favourite pictures I've come across so far. I love the guy cheering! It's exactly what I was doing, except I was in bed in Ireland...
(Source)
Massive congratulations to all the folks at SpaceX and NASA!
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Also hugely deserving of congratulations today is my little sister (one of only 2 people who actively read this blog) who graduated from secondary school today! Congrats Roisin!
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