The Falcon 9 rocket soared into the blue Florida sky in the first first manned space flight from U.S. soil

News24xx.com - With President Trump watching, the 270-foot Falcon 9 rocket soared into the blue Florida sky at 3:22 p.m. in the first first manned space flight from U.S. soil in nearly a decade.

“Go SpaceX! Go NASA!" engineers cried out as the rocket made what looked like a flawless take off.

Roaring with the power of five jumbo jets, the rocket raced into orbit carrying veteran astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken strapped inside.

With AC/DC’s “Back in Black” playing through their speakers, the duo began the 19-hour journey to the space station that orbits high above Earth.

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Trump made a second journey this week to Cape Canaveral for the launch of the rocket built by Elon Musk’s private SpaceX company.

“It’s incredible, the technology, the power," Trump said moments after the launch. “When you see a sight like that, it’s incredible.”

The president, who watched with Vice President Mike Pence said it was important to watch the launch even as violent protests over the police killing of George Floyd raged from coast to coast.

Hurley and Behnken rode to the rocket in a fancy winged Tesla SUV and wore sleek space suits that are a big image boost from previous launches.

Thunderstorms were a worry again right up to the launch time. NASA was fretting over the weather not just at Kennedy Space Center, but all the way up the Eastern Seaboard and across the North Atlantic to Ireland.

Wednesday’s countdown was halted at just under 17 minutes because of the threat of lightning.

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The space shot was the first one from American soil in eight years. Ever since the space shuttle was retired in 2011, NASA has relied on Russian spaceships launched from Kazakhstan to take U.S. astronauts to and from the space station.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, NASA severely limited the number of employees, visitors and journalists allowed inside Kennedy Space Center.