PILOT BRIEFING EVENTS | Back in the game Personal perspective on a new kind of space race BY THOMAS B. HAINES BRIGHT AS A WELDER'S TORCH, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ascended from famed Launch Complex 39A carrying two NASA astronauts on what was essentially a charter flight to the International Space Station. All done in silence-or so it seemed for about 20 seconds. And then the wave of noise rushed over our viewing site about 5 miles away across the water-a rumble at first and then a deep growl that rattled our chests and then a roar that pushed us backward, sounding as if it were ripping open the atmosphere to let the Dragon capsule out into space. And, in a sense, it was, shoving the little capsule into an orbit that would allow it to catch up with the ISS some 19 hours later for a successful docking. The May 30 launch of the NASA SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission was the first launch of Americans from American soil since the space shuttle was retired in 2011. In the interim, NASA chartered flights on Russian Soyuz rockets while the agency transitioned to what is known as the Commercial Crew program, allowing private companies to carry American astronauts to the space station under contract to the government. Billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX was the first private company to complete that task-on his American-designed and -built Falcon 9 rocket. Historic indeed. 30 | AOPA PILOT August 2020 POWER COMPARISON Saturn 5: 7.6 million pounds thrust Space Shuttle: 7.8 million pounds thrust Falcon 9: 1.8 million pounds thrust