Two veteran NASA astronauts were headed for the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday in Elon Musk’s SpaceX flight.. Elon Musk’s SpaceX became the first commercial company to launch a rocket carrying humans into orbit, ushering in a new era in space travel. SpaceX’s two-stage Falcon 9 rocket with astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley aboard blasted off flawlessly in a cloud of bright orange flames and smoke from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center for a 19-hour voyage to the space station.