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Crew-4: SpaceX and NASA just launched astronauts to the International Space Station
The Crew-4 mission is SpaceX's sixth successful crewed launch to the International Space Station.
Science & Tech
SpaceX and NASA chalked off yet another crew launch to the International Space Station.
The Crew-4 mission lifted off with four astronauts at 3:52 a.m. EDT (0752 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The mission is SpaceX's sixth crewed launch to the ISS, including Crew-1 through 4, and SpaceX's first-ever human spaceflight, Demo-2, which launched in May 2020. SpaceX also launched the first all-civilian mission to the space station, Ax-1, on April 8.
SpaceX and NASA's Crew-4 are making their way to the ISS
Four astronauts — NASA’s Jessica Watkins, Robert Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and the European Space Agency's Samantha Cristoforetti — are on their way to the orbital station in what will be less than a day-long journey to reach the orbital station at an altitude of roughly 250 miles.
Watkins, 33, is the first African American woman to join a long-duration mission aboard the ISS, while ESA astronaut and Italian Air Force jet pilot Cristoforetti, 45, will become the first European woman to assume command of ISS operations during the Crew-4 mission.
Roughly 10 minutes after launch, the SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage delivered the crew capsule into orbit. The reusable first stage, meanwhile, had detached itself and came back down for a smooth landing on the drone ship 'A Shortfall of Gravitas' in the Atlantic.
The SpaceX launch vehicle used for the mission is a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket, which successfully delivered a Crew Dragon Capsule called Freedom to orbit, where the astronauts are currently making their way to the ISS.