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SpaceX Launch Marks New Era in Space Travel

Kane Farabaugh

   CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - Even by using the tools at his disposal at the
   Adler Planetarium situated along the shore of Lake Michigan in Chicago,
   Director of Astronomy Geza Gyuk acknowledges there is a limit to what
   he can see and do in understanding the cosmos.

   "We've got a 24-inch telescope in the back of the Adler. It's not a
   great place to do observing because of all the light pollution from
   Chicago," he explained to VOA in an interview via Skype.

   Gyuk saidhe and many other astronomers around the world depend on
   experiments and equipment -- like the Hubble Telescope -- deployed by
   astronauts above Earth's atmosphere to help them not only "see" the
   cosmos in new and different ways, but also to see the Earth from above.

   The independent ability to launch crews into space to perform work and
   experiments is an importantjob that has been limited since the space
   shuttle era ended. Gyuk saidhe will be glued to his computer monitor
   this week when astronauts once again launch from the U.S. Space Coast
   in Florida.

   "I will look at one of the livestreams and enjoy the spectacle," he
   said.

   When space shuttle Atlantis touched down at Cape Canaveral July 21,
   2011, few thought it would take more than eight years for astronauts to
   launch back into orbit from U.S. soil. The only way to the
   International Space Station (ISS) and back since that time has been via
   Russian rockets and capsules launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
   Kazakhstan.

   Now, when astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley lift off, reach orbit
   and rendezvous with the ISS, they mark an historic milestone in the
   U.S. space program in a system partially funded -- but not produced --
   by Jim Bridenstine's National Aeronautics and Space Administration's
   (NASA) Commercial Crew Program.

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