WASHINGTON (BLOOMBERG, AFP)President Donald Trump plans to travel to Florida on Wednesday (May 27) to view the launch of SpaceX’s manned test mission to the International Space Station, according to a US official.
The launch will mark the first time Nasa astronauts have blasted off from US soil since the end of the space shuttle programme in 2011.
Two US astronauts on the Crew Dragon will take off May 27 from Kennedy Space Centre with help from SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.
They are to dock at the International Space Station, which is currently housing two Russians and one American.
Sanitary conditions are being carefully controlled as the United States continues to battle the coronavirus pandemic.
US astronauts have been flying to the ISS on Russian Soyuz rockets since the space shuttle programme ended in 2011.
This is also notable as the first space flight programme to be carried out as a public-private partnership, with SpaceX producing the Crew Dragon spacecraft and Boeing producing the Starliner.