SpaceX’s falcon flies anew, this time carrying four astronauts on a mission on the way to the International Space Station.
This is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s first full-fledged mission to send a crew into orbit with a privately-owned spacecraft.
The Falcon 9, still good as new even after series of liftoffs this year, launched the Crew Dragon’s “Resilience” under the Crew-1 mission.
The four astronauts on board are Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, Soichi Naguchi, and commanded by Mike Hopkins.
They are expected to reach the ISS by Monday evening and will stay in the location in the next six months to conduct a series of studies on microgravity and other scientific researches.
The milestone took entities years of planning before actual execution.
Such a historic event will open greater doors in the near future, focusing on regular commercial space flights.
This could also pave the way for a farther range of space exploration, including the “invasion” of the Martian land.
With the event’s success, the US stock futures also followed the upward trajectory.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added a 1.37% hike, translating to 180 points. It settled at 29,479.81 points in the latest chart movement.
Similarly, the technology-heavy Nasdaq added 119 points or a 1.02% increase, before steadying at 11,829.29 points.
Consequently, the broadest Wall Street index, the S&P 500, also traded in the green after generating a 48-point boost from investor’s upbeat mood. It settled at 3,585.15 points.
Last week, the Dow managed to end the session with a 4% weekly increase while the S&P also followed suit with a 2% hike.
However, the Nasdaq edged down by 0.5% as vaccine hopes ignited sentiments on the return of the old normal.
How Space and non-Space-related Stock are Affected?
The Elon Musk-owned Tesla did not gain much from the recent success of its sister company.
The EV manufacturer initially rose by 1.10% in the pre-market along but has since retraced back to the red. Currently, the firm notched a 0.79% decline to $408.50 per share.
On the other hand, SpaceX’s competitors are enjoying the mood that is created.
The American-British spaceflight company added 0.65% after the news broke out. It settled at 22.27 in the latest trading session.
Back to the most-watched shares in the market today, pharmaceutical companies are among the biggest gainers in the pre-market session.
Phizer and partner BioNTech are both enjoying investors’ attention after hiking by 1.07% and 4.30%, respectively.
