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“You can bet we will take it with us when we

depart back to Earth,” said Hurley, floating

alongside Dragon crewmate Bob Behnken.

The flag flew on the first space shuttle flight in

1981 and the final one in 2011. Hurley was on

that last shuttle crew.

The flag was an added incentive for Elon Musk’s

SpaceX company and Boeing, competing

to be the first private company to launch a

crew to the space station. Saturday’s liftoff of

NASA astronauts was the first from the U.S. in

nine years. Boeing’s first astronaut flight isn’t

expected until next year. The crew will include

Chris Ferguson, commander of the last shuttle

flight who now works for Boeing.

“Proud to yield the title of “The last commander

of an American launched spacecraft” to @Astro_

Doug who, with @AstroBehnken, has returned

US to space from KSC after 3,252 days. Well done,”

Ferguson tweeted following the SpaceX liftoff.

An estimated 100,000 people — suppliers,

vendors, engineers, etc. — were responsible

for Saturday’s flawless launch of test pilots

Hurley and Behnken aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9

rocket from Kennedy Space Center. The Dragon

capsule, also built and owned by SpaceX,

docked at the space station Sunday.

“It’s awe-inspiring for all of us,” SpaceX manager

Benji Reed told the astronauts from Hawthorne.

Reed asked them about the Falcon ride. Hurley

said he could feel when the rocket went

transonic and broke the sound barrier. The final

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