North Yorkshire station RAF Fylingdales plays its part in SpaceX Nasa mission

The site sits on the North York Moors and has been an iconic landmark for 57 years. Credit: MOD Crown

The team from RAF Fylingdales have played their part following the historic Crew Dragon launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

On Saturday NASA launched astronauts into space from United States soil for the first time in nine years on board SpaceX's Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket - built by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s firm.

The NASA launch is the first manned space vehicle for nine years to journey to the International Space Station. Credit: MOD Crown

RAF Fylingdales detected the launch after lift off when it came within its field of view. It shared this information with the Space Operations Centre at Headquarters Air Command and sister sites in the United States.

The North Yorkshire station has the capability of looking 3,000 miles into space, routinely tracks around 8,000 objects and forms part of the UK and US governments’ Ballistic Missile Early Warning System.

The NASA crew successfully docked at the International Space Station yesterday.