After having to scrub the first launch attempt due to weather, SpaceX made history on May 30, becoming the first private company to ever successfully send two astronauts into orbit aboard the Crew Dragon capsule.
A flight years in the making, and that marked the first manned launch from U.S. soil since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011, was completed when the Crew Dragon capsule docked with the International Space Station the next day.
Even 50 years after the Apollo 11 moon landing, space flight is hard.
Even when it seemed like humans had mastered space flight and it had become routine, tragedies struck. And for this mission, SpaceX upped the ante, too, designing its Falcon 9 booster rockets to be re-usable.
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So, when it came time for the mission to finally get under way, everybody’s nerves were on edge.
Inside the capsule were two veteran NASA astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.
They had both been to space before, with Hurley even on the last shuttle mission in 2011. And so, getting themselves pumped up for another historic journey above the clouds, the pair put on a fitting music selection: AC/DC’s classic anthem, “Back in Black.”
Although you might think that heavy metal would be the last thing astronauts would want during a launch, there’s some history here for Behnken.
On his last NASA mission in 2010, Behnken chose Tool’s “Parabola” as his wake-up music one morning.
Yeah, astronauts take turns picking wake-up tunes for the crew on their missions.
The day after the launch, Behnken and Hurley went right back to classic metal for their wake-up tune as well.
This time, they chose “Planet Caravan” from Black Sabbath’s album Paranoid to get themselves in gear for the big day.
