Photo: Reuters

(Updated) Rocket company Elon musk, Falcon 9 was successfully launched from the spaceport at Cape Canaveral.

The first ever manned launch by a private company, has carried the company SpaceX Elon musk. The Falcon 9 rocket with the spacecraft Crew Dragon launched from the spaceport at Cape Canaveral, Florida. On Board are two American astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, which will be delivered to the International space station (ISS), RBC reports.

This launch was the first American manned flight since 2011, when he closed the Space Shuttle program. Since then, astronauts on the MSK delivered to the Russian ships “the Union”.

Crew Dragon (Dragon 2) was developed by SpaceX on the order of NASA. It was first presented in 2014, but six years spent on the revision and testing of the cargo version. Prior to that, SpaceX used to deliver cargo to orbit reusable space truck Dragon. There were produced 22 launch of this ship with a carrier rocket Falcon 9. One of them failed (the seventh mission, the rocket carrier exploded on the second minute), another launch was a test, without load and docking with the ISS. Last flight was in March.

Nine-year pause in the manned American space program was tied to the lack of a manned spacecraft after the closure of the Space Shuttle program. “Shuttle” (it was built five full-fledged space Shuttle) operated since 1981. They made 135 flights, two of which led to disaster. January 28, 1986 when you start destroyed the Shuttle Challenger, killing seven crew members. The reason was the malfunction of one of the solid rocket boosters. The second accident occurred February 1, 2003, at landing of the space Shuttle Columbia. After entering the atmosphere, it collapsed because of damage to the thermal barrier layer that was damaged at the start. July 8, 2011 was the last launch of the Space Shuttle program — the ISS went Shuttle “Atlantis” with the reduced of up to four astronauts crew. The mission ended July 21, 2011.