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SpaceX's 1st Astronaut Launch Breaking New Ground for Style

Associated Press

   CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. - The first astronauts launched by SpaceX are
   breaking new ground for style with hip spacesuits, gull-wing Teslas and
   a sleek rocketship -- all of it white with black trim.

   The color coordinating is thanks to Elon Musk, the driving force behind
   both SpaceX and Tesla, and a big fan of flash and science fiction.

   NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken like the fresh new look.
   They'll catch a ride to the launch pad in a Tesla Model X electric car.

   "It is really neat, and I think the biggest testament to that is my
   10-year-old son telling me how cool I am now," Hurley told The
   Associated Press.

   "SpaceX has gone all out" on the capsule's appearance, he said. "And
   they've worked equally as hard to make the innards and the displays and
   everything else in the vehicle work to perfection."

   The true test comes Wednesday when Hurley and Behnken climb aboard a
   SpaceX Dragon capsule atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and, equipment and
   weather permitting, shoot into space. It will be the first astronaut
   launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center since the last shuttle flight
   in 2011.

   It will also mark the first attempt by a private company to send
   astronauts into orbit. Only governments -- Russia, the U.S., and China
   -- have done that.

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