SpaceX launches 4 astronauts for NASA after pvt flight

SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Wednesday, less than two days after completing a flight chartered by millionaires.

It's the first NASA crew comprised equally of men and women, including the first Black woman – Jessica Watkins – making a longterm spaceflight. “This is one of the most diversified, I think, crews that we've had in a really, really long time,” said NASA's space operations mission chief Kathy Lueders.

The astronauts were due to arrive at the space station on Wednesday night, 16 hours after a predawn lift-off from Kennedy Space Centre that thrilled spectators.

“Anyone who saw it realised what a beautiful launch it was,” Lueders said. A week after the new crew arrives, the three Americans and German they're replacing will return to Earth in their own SpaceX capsule.

Three Russians also live at the space station. NASA and the European Space

Agency have been pushing for more female astronauts.

SpaceX has now launched five crews for NASA and two private trips in just under two years.

Elon Musk's company is having an especially busy few weeks as it just finished taking three businessmen to and from the space station as NASA's first private guests. Both SpaceX and NASA officials stressed they're taking one step at a time to ensure safety.

The private mission that concluded on Monday encountered no major problems, they said, although high wind delayed the splashdown for a week.

NASA also hired Boeing to ferry astronauts after retiring the shuttles.

The company will take another shot next month at getting an empty crew capsule to the space station, after software and other problems fouled a 2019 test flight and prevented a redo last summer.

The SpaceX capsules are fully automated – which opens the space gates to a broader clientele – and they're designed to accommodate a wider range of body sizes.