SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, Wednesday (27/4) local time. The rocket carries 4 astronauts on a six-month science mission.
Businessman Elon Musk's rocket company, SpaceX, launched the next full-length crew of astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA on Wednesday (4/27) local time, including a medical doctor turned space explorer and a geologist who specializes in space exploration. themselves in a landslide for Mars.
SpaceX's launch vehicle consisting of a Falcon 9 rocket, split in two stages topped with a Crew Dragon capsule dubbed the Freedom, is set to lift off with its four crew members at 3:52 a.m. from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
If all goes according to plan, three US astronauts and a European Space Agency (ESA) crew from Italy will reach the space station about 17 hours later to begin a six-month science mission orbiting about 250 miles (420 kilometers) above Earth.
The composition of members for Crew 4 is Dr. Kjell Lindgren, 49, commanding the mission, is a board-certified emergency medicine physician and surgeon. The pilot designated for the mission was rookie astronaut Bob Hines, 47, a US Air Force fighter pilot. Another crew member who made his space debut as a mission specialist is Jessica Watkins, 33, a geologist. Ending Crew 4 is Samantha Cristoforetti (45) an ESA astronaut and Italian Air Force jet pilot.