Four astronauts have begun their journey to the International Space Station (ISS) after the historic SpaceX launch.
Four astronauts have begun their journey to the International Space Station (ISS) after the historic SpaceX launch.
This is NASA’s first complete mission to send a crew into orbit on a privately owned spacecraft, and for the second time SpaceX’s Dragon capsule took astronauts to the space station. Check the aircraft again in May this year.
The team, consisting of three U.S. NASA astronauts and a Japanese astronaut, was launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7.27pm (GMT) local time and 7.27pm local time.
This is the second manned spaceflight to be launched from the United States in almost a decade since the space shuttle project retired in 2011.
SpaceX will now run the cycle of ISS missions on behalf of NASA, Acts as a taxi service To the station.
It takes 27 hours to reach the ISS, and they will spend five to six months in orbit around the Earth.
In an achievement of engineering, the Dragon capsule should fly all over the ISS, without the team members having to control it – of course if they don’t need to.
After a thunderstorm across the sky from Florida across North Carolina, the ship was on its way into orbit across the North Atlantic.
Once the dragon reached the right altitude, its first stage booster, called the Falcon 9, was disassembled and successfully renamed Just Reed the Instructions on a drone in the Atlantic Ocean.
Mr Hopkins is joined by physicist Shannon Walker and Navy Commander Victor Clover, who is an ISS. Will be the first black astronaut to spend a long time aboard the ship.
Commander Clover will make his first trip to the ISS, while others have previously called the station home.
Sochi Nokuchi from Japan is also on board, the third person in history to orbit three different types of spacecraft.
When they reach ISS at 4am on Tuesday, they will be met by NASA’s Kate Rubins and Russian astronauts Sergei Ryzykov and Sergei Good-Sverkov.
He had previously tweeted: “Astronaut launching today!”, Despite mild corona virus symptoms, he felt “very normal”.
US President Donald Trump hailed the launch site as “huge”, but NASA said it was “a closed disaster when we took charge”.
“Now it’s once again the hottest, most advanced, space hub in the world!”
Vice President Mike Pence launched on behalf of the President on the East Coast of Florida.
President-elect Joe Biden also tweeted: “Congratulations on today’s launch of NASA and SpaceX.
“It’s a testament to the power of science and what we can do with our invention, ingenuity and determination. I join all Americans and people of Japan in congratulating the astronauts on their journey to Godspeed.”
Originally published at Amico Hoops