Kent residents have captured the historic moment following SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch into space last night.

Two astronauts, Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley, shot into the sky in the new Crew Dragon spacecraft, heading to the International Space Station.

The launch was originally planned for Wednesday but was cancelled due to unsafe weather conditions.

However, with better conditions yesterday, the rocket left the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 8.22pm UK time.

It means US company SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, has made history by becoming the first private firm to fund a manned-space flight.

The last crewed orbital flight by NASA was in 2011, when its space shuttle Atlantis was launched for the last time before being retired to make way for new space programmes.

Some 10 million people across the world watched the spacecraft take off.

Among them were public figures and MPs including Chatham and Aylesford's MP, Tracey Crouch, who posted: "It was one of those moments when the word awesome can be used correctly."

And some Kent residents managed to get a glimpse of it flying through the sky.

Dan Jonson spotted the rocket from Erith and Stephen Bates also captured it shooting past his garden in Ashford. He said: "Amazing to think the SpaceX launch from Florida I watched from NASA on Twitter a couple of hours ago has just passed over my garden in Kent en route to the Space Station."

Lorraine Saunders in Gillingham captured a video of the SpaceX heading to the ISS.

Others saw the Space Station, which was also visible last night a little earlier than the rocket.

Pierre Virgin saw it passing over Ashford just before 9pm and seven-year-old Bella Mai got a photo of it going over Medway shortly after.

Did you manage to get any footage of the SpaceX last night? Send your photos and videos to rtuffin@thekmgroup.co.uk

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