SpaceX launches Crew Dragon test flight to prove it can fly humans safely

In 2014, NASA awarded SpaceX and rival Boeing Co. combined contracts worth up to $6.8 billion to fly US astronauts to the space station

SpaceX launched an unmanned Crew Dragon craft from Florida to the International Space Station early Saturday, a milestone for Elon Musk's goal of enabling humans to live on other planets and a big win for NASA’s gamble of partnering with private industry. Scores of space tourists gathered in Florida to watch the 2:49 a.m. launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, which went off without a hitch. Crew Dragon is en route to a rendezvous with the station on Sunday,  while SpaceX landed the rocket's first stage on a drone ship in the ocean.

“I'm a little emotionally exhausted,” Musk said