SpaceX launches astronauts into space
Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX on Sunday launched four astronauts on a flight to the International Space Station, NASA’s first full-fledged mission sending a crew into orbit aboard a private spacecraft.
SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon capsule, which the crew dubbed Resilience, lifted off on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 7:27 p.m. EST (0027 GMT Monday) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
“It was a hell of a race,” Crew Dragon astronaut Mike Hopkins told SpaceX mission control about an hour after takeoff. “There were a lot of smiles.”
Crew Dragon will gradually increase its orbit over the next 27 hours through a series of onboard thruster shots, giving astronauts time to eat pre-packaged dinners and about eight hours of rest before docking with the International Space Station. at 11 p.m. Eastern time, Monday.
An air leak caused an unexpected drop in capsule pressure less than two hours before launch, NASA officials said. But technicians said they had passed a leak check and the planned launch was still underway.
The Resilience crew includes Hopkins and two other NASA astronauts, mission pilot Victor Glover and physicist Shannon Walker. They were joined by Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, making his third trip to space after previously flying the US shuttle in 2005 and Soyuz in 2009.
The 27-hour journey to the space station, a laboratory orbiting 400 km above Earth, was initially scheduled to begin on Saturday. But the launch was postponed for a day due to forecasts of wind gusts – remnants of Tropical Storm Eta – which would have made it difficult for a return landing for the Falcon 9’s reusable booster stage, officials said. from NASA.
The astronauts donned their custom white flight suits and arrived at the Kennedy Space Center launch pad at 4:30 p.m. in three white Tesla SUVs, flanked by staff from NASA and SpaceX.
SpaceX mission operator Jay Aranha, speaking from the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., Told the crew “to take an amazing trip and to know that we are all for one.”
Mission Commander Mike Hopkins replied, “To all the people of NASA and SpaceX, by working together during these trying times you have inspired the nation and the world.”
And now it’s time for us to do our part, Crew 1 for all, Hopkins said.
Vice President Mike Pence attended the launch and said in advance that under President Donald Trump America had “renewed our commitment to be the leader in human space exploration.”
President-elect Joe Biden tweeted his congratulations, saying the launch was “a testament to the power of science.”
FIRST PRIVATE MISSION
NASA calls the flight its first operational mission for a rocket and crew vehicle system that had been in production for 10 years. It represents a new era of commercially developed spacecraft – owned and operated by a private entity rather than NASA – to send Americans into orbit.
A SpaceX Crew Dragon test flight in August, carrying just two astronauts to and from the space station, marked NASA’s first human space mission to be launched from US soil in nine years after the end. of the space shuttle program in 2011. In the years that followed, American astronauts had to hitchhike in orbit aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
NASA hired SpaceX and Boeing in 2014 to develop competing space capsules aimed at replacing its shuttle program and weaning the United States from reliance on Russian rockets to send astronauts into space.
SpaceX’s launch on Sunday was the first of NASA’s six operational missions. The company has also booked private astronaut missions, one of which is expected to transport actor Tom Cruise for years to come.
Musk, the billionaire CEO of SpaceX who is also CEO of electric car maker and battery maker Tesla Inc, did not watch the take off from the launch control room at Kennedy Space Center, NASA officials said. Musk said on Saturday he “very likely” had a moderate case of COVID-19.
SpaceX and NASA conducted contact tracing and determined that Musk had not come into contact with anyone who interacted with the astronauts.
“Our astronauts have been in quarantine for weeks and they shouldn’t have had any contact with anyone,” NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said on Friday. “They should be in good shape.”
