Did you miss watching history on Saturday or just miss the thrill of SpaceX sending NASA astronauts to space for the first time ever? You’ll want to set aside five hours (or at least a few minutes) to watch the newest footage from Elon Musk’s space exploration company.

SpaceX has published a 4 hour 49 minute long replay of the Crew Demo 2 test flight mission launch from Saturday, May 30, including the first 25 minutes of flight.

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SpaceX called off the first launch attempt on Wednesday due to weather concerns. The next attempt will be on Saturday, May 30, at 3:22 p.m.

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SpaceX is sending humans to space for the first time this week in a historic mission called Demo-2 for Elon Musk’s space exploration company. The crew consists of two NASA astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who previously flew on space shuttle missions. The crewed test flight will mark the return of human spaceflight capabilities in the U.S. for the first time in nearly a decade.

From how to watch to why it matters, here’s what you need to know:

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The days are counting down to when SpaceX will launch NASA astronauts to space for the first time in history. With under a week until the historic NASA Demo-2 mission kicks off, both the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft have arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

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NASA is just eight days away from sending astronauts to space from America for the first time since 2011, and the associate administrator in charge of human spaceflight has resigned. The development is one that has surprised observers of America’s space agency considering the timing of the milestone spaceflight.

Doug Loverro took the position of associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate in October 2019, replacing acting associate administrator Kenneth Bowersox who filled the position for three months prior. Today former astronaut and shuttle pilot Bowersox resumed the role as the acting associate administrator.

NASA released a statement on the leadership shuffle without explaining the resignation:

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NASA is returning astronauts to the Moon in this decade for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. The Artemis program will see the first woman and next man walk on the Moon by 2024. The program will rely on NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, and Orion capsule for transporting astronauts from Earth to the Moon.

Artemis will also require a modern human landing system, or HLS, and today NASA announced which companies will be tasked with developing the new hardware.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, and Leidos subsidiary Dynetics have been selected as commercial partners to design and develop NASA’s modern human landing system.

NASA outlines how each company’s proposal for new human landing systems:

• Blue Origin of Kent, Washington, is developing the Integrated Lander Vehicle (ILV) – a three-stage lander to be launched on its own New Glenn Rocket System and ULA Vulcan launch system. 
• Dynetics (a Leidos company) of Huntsville, Alabama, is developing the Dynetics Human Landing System (DHLS) – a single structure providing the ascent and descent capabilities that will launch on the ULA Vulcan launch system. 
• SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, is developing the Starship – a fully integrated lander that will use the SpaceX Super Heavy rocket. 

Here’s how each Human Landing System proposal will work:

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NASA will close a nearly decade long chapter next month when SpaceX sends American astronauts to space on an American rocket from American soil.

Since the Space Shuttle Program ended in 2011, American’s space agency has relied on leasing seats from Russian rockets in Kazakhstan to send NASA astronauts to space.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced today that the mission, called Demo-2 or DM-2, officially has a launch date scheduled.

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This is news that NASA enthusiasts will consider completely epic. NASA is bringing back its iconic “worm” typeface logo starting with the upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule Demo-2 mission planned for next month.

The mission will mark a historic milestone for America’s space agency: NASA astronauts flying on an American rocket from American soil for the first time since the Space Shuttle Program ended in 2011.

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Our footage of the Core Stage of NASA’s Space Launch System on the B-2 Test Stand at Stennis Space Center gives you an idea of the scale of the tank, and the commentary from Maurie Vander and Barry Robinson is even more insightful.

Vander is Chief of Operations Division of NASA’s Engineering & Test Directorate, and Robinson is the SLS Core Stage Test Project Manager.

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This giant orange thing is the core stage of NASA’s Space Launch System, a super heavy-lift launch vehicle currently being built and tested, before it takes flight on the Artemis I mission.

A future version of this hardware will be used to take the first woman and next man to the Moon during this decade as part of a long-term strategy to eventually reach Mars.

Before that, NASA will conduct an uncrewed test flight of Space Launch System to send the Orion spacecraft around the Moon. This giant orange rocket is the exact hardware that will be used for Artemis I, formerly called Exploration Mission-1, as early as later this year:

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