May 31, 2020 saw Elon Musk's SpaceX launch astronauts into orbit, marking the first time a private enterprise has achieved what only 3 nation states, the US, Russia, and China, have otherwise accomplished. NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken's Dragon ship left Earth precisely on time at 15:22 EDT (19:22 GMT). “Let’s light this candle,” Hurley said, borrowing words used by Alan Shepard on America’s first human spaceflight in 1961. After the successful launch, Musk expressed his hope for this program to inspire and "get people pumped up about the future."
