Space travel is always an impressive feat no matter how many times we do it - especially when humans are involved. It takes a lot of science and technology to launch even a small payload to space.

For nine long years, NASA had been relying on the Russian spacecraft to send astronauts into space. Now, for the first time in nearly a decade, they are going to launch American astronauts, from American soil in an American rocket.

This has to be a huge milestone for NASA, SpaceX and the American people. And it is even more impressive because it is a private company that is launching the astronauts.

Everyone was sceptical about SpaceX's ability to pull this feat off. But Elon and his team have proved them wrong. They have advanced way beyond what everyone thought was possible and are posied to now go down in the history books forever.

The Launch

The launch is scheduled to take place at 20:33 GMT on Wednesday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. US President Donald Trump will be there to witness the launch too. However, the public is not allowed to attend the event due to the pandemic.

SpaceX will be using their popular Falcon 9 rockets for this launch. The actual spacecraft that will dock to the International Space Station (ISS) is called the Crew Dragon. It will carry astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to the station.

It will take them around 19 hours to reach the station and only after then will the mission be considered successful. However, there is a chance that this launch might not happen on Wednesday as there is a 60% chance of bad weather. If that happens, the next launch window is on Saturday, May 30.

It seems like SpaceX is really ahead of the curve when it comes to space technologies. It has beaten Boeing to become the first private company that will launch astronauts to space. Also, they are building an even bigger rocket and ship called the Starship that will be able to carry humans to the Moon, Mars and virtually anywhere in the Solar System. This goes to show what private involvement in a sector can achieve- especially if Elon Musk is involved.