U.S. astronauts returned to space on a U.S. rocket on Saturday for the first time since the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011. NASA’s Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken rode a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in the new Crew Dragon capsule to orbit from Cape Canaveral. Bad weather threatened a second scrub of the launch but the clouds parted just in time for the 3:22 EDT precision launch window. The launch appeared to be right by the numbers and after 12 minutes the capsule separated from the second stage of the rocket and settled into orbit. The first stage was successfully recovered on a barge anchored in the Atlantic.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/manned-launch-goes-flawlessly