SpaceX’s rocket launched four astronauts to orbit Wednesday night. It was the 600th spacewalker in human history.
SpaceX’s launch vehicle was made up of a Crew Dragon capsule, and a Falcon 9 rocket. It launched from NASA Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 9:15pm. A red fireball lit up the night sky, as nine Merlin engines burst into life.
On their way to the International Space Station, they were joined by a spacewalker who was a veteran and two other crew members.
NASA TV broadcast the Dragon spacecraft’s launch live from Cape Canaveral. The crew named it Endurance. NASA TV also broadcast the event, which was punctuated by cheers and applause by mission controllers.
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts NASA’s third space station crew from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center at 9:03 pm on Wednesday
SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket carrying Crew Dragon is launched aboard NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission. It was piloted by Raja Chari (NASA astronaut), Tom Marshburn, Kayla Baron and Matthias Maurer (ESA astronaut).
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission to International Space Station is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. It’s the third crew rotation mission for the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 spacecrafts.
Long exposure of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule as they launch carrying three NASA astronauts and one ESA astronaut on mission to the International Space Station. The Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral.
NASA stated that although there was some cloud cover and rain over Cape Point earlier in the day, the weather improved by the time of flight.
Since its October 31 launch, the mission was delayed by weather conditions that caused it to be unable to complete.
NASA later confirmed that one postponement was caused by an unspecified medical issue.
NASA live video showed four astronauts strapping into their capsule. They sat calmly wearing their white-and black flight suits, moments after the launch which appeared flawless.
According to launch commentators, the upper stage of the rocket had already delivered the crew capsule into orbit in less than ten minutes.
The rocket’s reusable lowerstage, which had separated from the rest, successfully flew back to Earth. It landed on an Atlantic landing platform.
Moments later, Dragon separated from the rocket’s upper stage. A ground engineer radioed the crew to say: “Welcome to orbit.” We hope you had a great time. Dragon will get you there. Enjoy safe travels.
After a 22-hour flight, the three American astronauts were expected to land at the station orbiting 250 miles above Earth on Thursday night.
Members of Crew-3 (left to right), NASA Astronauts Tom Marshburn, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron wave to media and family as they walk out from the Neil Armstrong O&C Building for a ride to Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center
SpaceX Falcon 9 is currently being built for NASA’s third astronaut to the International Space Station.
SpaceX Crew-3 launches on a Falcon 9 Rocket from Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center
Chari, Marshburn and Barron launched from Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center, at 9:03 p.m. EST
This is the third space station crew to be sent into orbit on a Dragon capsule. It was the first flight since NASA and SpaceX joined forces to restart space launches from American soil after a nine year hiatus following the 2011 end of U.S. Space Shuttle program.
Two members of NASA’s most recent graduating class are part of Crew 3. Raja Chari is a U.S. Air Force combat plane pilot and test pilot, serving as mission command, while Kayla Barron (34), is a U.S Navy sub-officio and nuclear engineer.
Tom Marshburn (61), a veteran astronaut and medical doctor, is designated as the pilot of the team and will be second in command. Marshburn was previously a NASA flight surgeon and has been on two previous spaceflights.
Matthias Maurer (51), a German materials scientist engineer and European Space Agency astronaut, completes the crew.
Chari and Maurer were the first to launch spaceflights, joining Barron, Maurer, Barron, and becoming the 601st and 600th humans in space.
Barron and Chari were also selected from the initial 18 astronauts for NASA’s Artemis missions. They are aimed to return humans to the Moon later in this decade than the Apollo lunar program.
Left to right: Matthias Maurer, an astronaut from the European Space Agency, Germany; and Kayla Barron, Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral (Florida).
Below is a map that shows the exact location of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral (Florida).
About 22 hours after their arrival, the three NASA astronauts will dock 250 miles above Earth with ESA’s crewmate to start a six-month mission on the orbiting laboratory.
NASA has long praised the missions of space stations in low-Earth orbit for their role as incubators and training grounds for technology that can be used to achieve NASA’s goals of sustainable lunar presence, and eventually human flights to Mars.
Crew Dragon flew autonomously in space at more that 17,000 mph. The astronauts had to stop for food and rest before they arrived at the space station, where they would begin their six-month mission to study the orbiting laboratory.
SpaceX launched the fifth crewed SpaceX flight within 17 months. This was the fourth launch under NASA’s public-private partnership. Elon Musk, billionaire chief executive at Tesla Inc., founded SpaceX in 2002.
In May 2020, there was a 2-astronaut test run to space station. This was followed in November by Crew 1 of NASA-SpaceX’s maiden operational crew.
Crew 2 flew from Earth to the Space Station in April this year. They just returned home safely Monday night after a splashdown that marked 199 days of orbit.
This latest mission follows several high-profile, recent astrotourism flights including SpaceX’s September launch of “Inspiration 4”, the first crew of all civilians to be sent into orbit with no professional astronaut.
Crew 3 is expected to be welcomed by the three current crew members – two Russian and Belarusian cosmonauts and an American astronaut, both of whom shared a Soyuz orbital flight earlier this year.