First crewed U.S. space mission since 2011 takes off today

A historic event takes place in Florida this afternoon: The first crewed Space X mission takes off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida Wednesday at 4:33 p.m. Eastern time.

This will be the first orbital human spaceflight to launch from the U.S. since NASA retired the space shuttle fleet in July 2011. On board the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule will be NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.

Launch complex 39A, where the craft will blast off, has a storied past. Built in the 1960s, nearly all of Apollo missions took off from that pad, including Apollo 8, the first manned flight to make a lunar orbit, and Apollo 11, which put the first men on the moon.

You can watch the blastoff and live coverage at https://www.space.com/.