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NASA's plea: Stay home for 1st home astronaut launch in years

It will be the first launch of astronauts from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in nine years, and the first anywhere by a private company.
Credit: AP
FILE - In this July 8, 2011 file photo, spectators watch the space shuttle Atlantis lift off from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla. Atlantis was the 135th and final space shuttle launch for NASA. On Friday, May 1, 2020, NASA and SpaceX urged everyone to stay home for the first home launch of astronauts in nearly a decade, coming up later in the month, because of the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA and SpaceX are urging everyone to stay home for the first home launch of astronauts in nearly a decade because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Top officials warned the public Friday against traveling to Florida for this month's launch of two NASA astronauts aboard a SpaceX rocket. 

It will be the first launch of astronauts from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in nine years, and the first anywhere by a private company. 

RELATED: American astronauts get date to launch from U.S. soil for the first time in almost 10 years

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine says while it saddens him to keep people away, the priority is to keep everyone safe. 

He said hundreds of thousands of people used to descend on the area to watch space shuttle launches.

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