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NASA, SpaceX send crew to ISS
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NASA and private rocket company SpaceX launched four astronauts into orbit late on Wednesday, sending a veteran spacewalker, two younger crewmates chosen for future lunar missions and a German materials scientist on their way to the International Space Station.
The liftoff of the Dragon spacecraft, named Endurance by the crew, was aired live from Cape Canaveral on NASA TV, punctuated by the sound of cheers and applause from mission controllers. Intermittent rain and clouds over the Cape earlier in the day had cast doubt on launch prospects, but the weather cleared by flight time, NASA said.
The mission had been confounded by a string of weather delays since its original launch window on October 31. One postponement earlier this month was attributed to an astronaut鈥檚 unspecified medical issue, although NASA said the problem was later resolved.
Live video footage webcast by NASA showed the four crew members strapped into the pressurized cabin of their capsule and seated calmly in their helmeted white-and-black flight suits moments after a launch that appeared to go flawlessly.
Within 10 minutes of liftoff, the rocket鈥檚 upper stage had delivered the crew capsule into orbit.
As the Dragon separated from the upper rocket stage moments later, a launch engineer on the ground radioed to the crew: 鈥淲elcome to orbit. Hope you enjoyed the ride. Dragon will take you from here. Safe travels.鈥
The three American astronauts and their European Space Agency crewmate were due to arrive at the space station, orbiting some 400 kilometers above the Earth, last night following a flight of about 22 hours.
The flight marks the third 鈥渙perational鈥 space station crew sent to orbit aboard a Dragon capsule since NASA and SpaceX teamed up to resume space launches from American soil last year, following a nine-year hiatus at the end of the US space shuttle program in 2011.
鈥淐rew 3鈥 includes two members of NASA鈥檚 latest graduating class of astronauts 鈥 Raja Chari, 44, a US Air Force combat jet and test pilot serving as mission commander, and mission specialist Kayla Barron, 34, a US Navy submarine officer and nuclear engineer.
The team鈥檚 designated pilot and second-in-command is veteran astronaut Tom Marshburn, 61, a medical doctor and former NASA flight surgeon who has logged two previous spaceflights to the space station and four spacewalks. Rounding out the crew is European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer, 51, of Germany, a materials science engineer.
Chari, Maurer and Barron are all making their debuts, becoming the 599th, 600th and 601st humans in space.
Both Chari and Barron also are among the first group of 18 astronauts selected for NASA鈥檚 upcoming Artemis missions, aimed at returning humans to the moon later this decade, over a half century after the Apollo lunar program ended.
NASA has extolled space station missions in low-Earth orbit as critical training grounds and incubators for technologies that will help achieve the goals of a sustainable lunar presence and eventual human flights to Mars.
With the Crew Dragon flying autonomously through space at more than 27,360 kilometers per hour, the four astronauts were expected to have a meal and get some sleep before arriving at the space station to begin a six-month science mission aboard the orbiting laboratory.
The launch stands as SpaceX鈥檚 fifth crewed flight overall in 17 months, and the fourth under NASA鈥檚 public-private partnership with the rocket company founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, the billionaire chief executive of electric car maker Tesla Inc.
The first was a two-astronaut trial run to the space station in May 2020, followed by the maiden NASA-SpaceX operational 鈥淐rew 1鈥 in November that year. 鈥淐rew 2鈥 flew to the space station in April of this year, and returned to Earth on Monday, capping a record 199 days in orbit.
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