SpaceX launches ‘Crew 4’ astronauts on flight to space station
2022.04.27 11:15
FILE PHOTO: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is prepared for launch with a crew of four astronauts to begin a six-month expedition on the International Space Station, at Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. April 26, 2022. REUTERS/Joe Skipper
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) -Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX launched four more astronauts on a flight to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA on Wednesday, including a medical doctor turned spacewalker and a geologist specializing in Martian landslides.
The SpaceX launch vehicle, consisting of a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket topped with a Crew Dragon capsule dubbed Freedom, lifted off with its crew of four at 3:52 a.m. EDT (0752 GMT) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
If all goes according to plan, the three U.S. astronauts and a European Space Agency (ESA) crewmate from Italy will reach the space station after a 17-hour flight and dock around 8:15 p.m. EDT (0015 GMT Thursday) to begin a six-month science mission orbiting some 250 miles (420 km) above Earth.
The liftoff was carried live on a NASA webcast, which showed the Falcon 9 ascending from the launch tower as its nine Merlin engines roared to life in billowing clouds of vapor and a reddish fireball that lit up the pre-dawn sky.
The four astronauts were seen strapped into the pressurized cabin of their capsule and seated calmly in their helmeted white-and-black spacesuits moments before launch.
The mission, designated Crew 4, is the fourth full-fledged ISS crew NASA has launched aboard a SpaceX vehicle since the private rocket venture founded by Musk, also owner of electric carmaker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc, began flying U.S. space agency astronauts in 2020.
In all, SpaceX has launched six previous human spaceflights over the past two years.
