OHIO, USA — A new chapter in the history of U.S. space travel lifts off Saturday.
NASA and SpaceX are prepping Cape Canaveral, Fla. for the first human launch since 2011.
"This is the beginning of the renaissance for commercial space travel," NASA veteran astronaut Doug Wheelock said.
Since the final flight of NASA’s Space Shuttle in July 2011, NASA has flown all of its astronauts and international partners to the space station on Russia’s Soyuz capsule. The launch of the Crew Dragon is looking to change that.
"This is the first time we're putting people onboard a commercial rocket in a commercial capsule," Wheelock said, "that was built by American hands, with American ingenuity, with American tax dollars."
Wheelock has been with NASA over 20 years and logged over 178 days in space. Most recently, he's been working here in Ohio at NASA Glenn's Plum Brook facility in Sandusky working on SpaceX's Crew Dragon rocket. Local partners like the University of Toledo have even contributed.
"We have a joke, not even a joke, it's really true," he added, "that it doesn't go to the moon until it comes through Ohio first."
NASA created the Commercial Crew program in 2011, teaming with private companies like SpaceX and Boeing to create new spacecrafts capable of transporting humans to space.
"NASA realized, gosh there's so much creative thought, there's so much ingenuity in the private sector," Wheelbrook said, "there's all these entrepreneurs that have these crazy dreams and ideas."
Wheelock stressed NASA's mission remains to not only push further into space, but also to push technology to help life here on earth. And this launch is a huge leap for the U.S.
"The ingenuity, the creative thinking that's gone into this, it's going to be a sight to behold," he said.
The mission, known as Demo 2, is set to take off Saturday at 3:22 p.m. depending on weather conditions.