‘If it goes wrong, it’s my fault’: Elon Musk is feeling nervous hours before SpaceX’s historic mission to launch its first astronauts into space

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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has opened up about his nerves ahead of SpaceX’s first-ever launch of people into orbit on Wednesday – and said the blame lies with him if anything goes wrong.

Speaking to CBS This Morning hours ahead of the slated launch, Musk said: “I’m the chief engineer of this thing so I’d just like to say that if it goes right, it’s credit to the SpaceX-NASA team. If it goes wrong, it’s my fault.”

He added: “This is the culmination of a dream. This is a dream come true. In fact, it feels surreal. If you’d asked me when starting SpaceX if this would happen, I’d be like ‘1% chance, 0.1% chance.'”

SpaceX is due to launch its first astronauts into space on Wednesday at 4.33 p.m. ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida, weather permitting.

All going to plan, a SpaceX Crew Dragon rocket will carry NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station. NASA is working with SpaceX on this mission, called Demo-2. President Trump has said he will attend the launch.

The astronauts’ safety is the “the only priority” for the SpaceX team during the mission, Musk said, admitting that aspects of the mission had given him sleepless nights.

The responsibility, he added, is “really all I can think about right now. I really can I have to kind of mentally block it because otherwise it would be emotionally impossible to deal with.”

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An illustration of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, also known as Dragon 2 or Dragon V2, orbiting Earth. (The first Dragon was a cargo and supply ship not designed to carry people.)Kennedy Space Center/SpaceX via Flickr

Demo-2 will launch from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. It’s the same launchpad that sent Apollo 11 to the moon, with Musk describing it as the “Times Square” of launch pads.

“39A is like Times Square, it’s not like opening a play on Broadway, it’s like opening a play on Times Square, okay, it’s the best pad in the world,” he said.

At the time of the interview with Musk, there was heavy rain and it’s possible storms could delay the launch. The backup launch days are Saturday and Sunday.

Here’s how you can watch the historic launch on Wednesday.