SPACEX SENDS 4 ON MISSION
Astronauts from Europe, Japan and two from NASA aboard a reused Crew Dragon capsule lift off from Florida bound for the space station.
SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station early Friday morning, marking the Elon Musk-led company’s second regular flight there with humans aboard.
The launch took place at 5:49 a.m. Eastern time from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The astronauts in the Crew Dragon capsule were expected to dock at the space station Saturday at 5:10 a.m. Eastern time.
NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet are set to stay aboard the station for about six months.
For a few days, there’ll be a tight squeeze on the station, which typically holds six people.
Currently it’s hosting seven, and the arrival of the astronauts who launched Friday will bring occupancy to 11 until the capsule departs next week carrying some astronauts who have been up there since November. The space station has hosted as many as 13 astronauts, which last happened in 2010.
Friday’s launch marked the first time NASA relied on a refurbished Crew Dragon capsule and a reused rocket booster to carry its astronauts.
The capsule, which previously carried NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the station during SpaceX’s first demonstration mission in May, went through a “multimonth” refurbishment, Benji Reed, senior director of human spaceflight programs at SpaceX, told reporters in March.
SpaceX’s crew launches to the space station are part of a NASA contract in which the U.S. space agency pays SpaceX and Boeing Co. to transport its astronauts to the space station aboard company-owned and -operated craft. After SpaceX’s May demonstration, the Hawthorne company’s craft was certified for regular crew trips to the station.
Boeing launched its Starliner capsule on an uncrewed flight test in 2019, but because of software problems, the capsule never reached the space station and returned to Earth early.
The company plans to refly its uncrewed test before putting astronauts aboard the capsule, but NASA and Boeing have yet to announce a new target date.