The first ever private vehicle carrying astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) has successfully launched in America.
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are manning the Dragon spacecraft developed by Elon Musks company, which blasted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Having been delayed by weather earlier in the week, the historic launch went off without a hitch, the first on US soil since the retirement of the space shuttle.
A key moment in the launch phase and entering into space was when the craft flew over Shannon, Co. Clare.
If they hadn’t successfully made that point they would have had to abort the mission and come down in Irish waters.
The Banner even got a shout out in the communicatins between the Kennedy Space Centre and the rocket but the duo safely entered an orbit of the Earth.
Many believe such commercial journeys are the start of regular trips into orbit for non astronauts with talk even Tom Cruise even wants to head up to shoot a movie in the International Space Station.
The rest of us will have to wait a while!
