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Trump To Attend Wednesday's SpaceX Astronaut Launch At Kennedy Space Center

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Dec. 5, 2019, carrying the Dragon spacecraft on the company's 19th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Dec. 5, 2019, carrying the Dragon spacecraft on the company's 19th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station.

The White House says President Donald Trump will be on the Florida coast Wednesday to watch American astronauts blast into orbit from the Kennedy Space Center.

It'll be the first time since the space shuttle program ended in 2011 that U.S. astronauts will launch into space aboard an American rocket from American soil.

Also new is that a private company will be in charge, instead of NASA. Elon Musk's SpaceX will run the show with NASA as the customer as private businesses begin chauffeuring astronauts to the International Space Station.

Vice President Mike Pence, who's chairman of the National Space Council, also plans to attend Wednesday’s launch.

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Associated Press