A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon space capsule lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, April 23, 2021.
John Raoux/AP
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John Raoux/AP
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon space capsule lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Heart in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, April 23, 2021.
John Raoux/AP
A SpaceX rocket lifted off from Florida early Friday morning on what is turning out to be a program mission, carrying four astronauts to the Intercontinental Space Station.
The company’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Place Heart just ahead of 6:00AM EDT, topped with a Crew Dragon capsule. Aboard were being NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and European astronaut Thomas Pesquet. The astronauts appreciated a easy trip to orbit, though the rocket’s divided initially phase returned to earth and landed vertically on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
This is the 3rd flight of the Crew Dragon capsule due to the fact Might of previous 12 months, when astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken launched on the inaugural crewed flight to the station. The Dragon capsule is in some methods a throwback to before times of house vacation, but it contains some upgrades, this kind of as sleek traces and touchscreen controls.
This Crew Dragon capsule was utilised on SpaceX’s very first mission that flew people final Might. It really is the very first time an American capsule has been reused considering the fact that the Gemini application, when the same unmanned spacecraft flew two times in 1965.
NASA is counting on the Crew Dragon to develop into the workhorse car for excursions to and from the station. The room company also recently picked SpaceX to construct a lander for a long run prepared mission to the moon.
The Dragon is scheduled to dock to the area station at approximately 5:10 AM EDT on Saturday. When it comes, the station’s crew will briefly rise to a total of 11 astronauts and cosmonauts. That will demand artistic sleeping preparations, and might develop some very long traces for the three bogs aboard.
But the crowded situations is not going to past long. NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who arrived to the station aboard yet another Crew Dragon capsule in November, are established to leave on April 28.
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