CAPE CANAVER, Florida (AP) – SpaceX launched four astronauts to NASA’s International Space Station on Wednesday, less than two days after completing a flight chartered by millionaires.
This is NASA’s first crew of men and women alike, including the first black woman to make a long-term space flight, Jessica Watkins.
“I think this is one of the most diverse crews we’ve had in a very, very long time,” said NASA’s space operations chief Katie Lueders.
The astronauts arrived at the space station on Wednesday night, just 16 hours after taking off before dawn from the Kennedy Space Center, which excited spectators.
“Everyone who saw it knew how beautiful the launch was,” Lueders told reporters. After an express flight comparable to the trip from New York to Singapore, the crew will move in five months.
SpaceX has already released five NASA crews and two private voyages in just under two years. Elon Musk’s company has a particularly busy week: it has just finished taking three businessmen to and from the space station as NASA’s first private guests.
A week after the arrival of the new crew, the three Americans and a German who replace them will return to Earth in their own SpaceX capsule. Three Russians also live on the space station.
SpaceX and NASA officials said they were taking it step by step to ensure safety. They said the private mission, which ended on Monday, did not encounter any serious problems, although strong winds delayed the descent by a week.
SpaceX Launch Control wished the astronauts good luck and Godspeed moments before the Falcon rocket fired the capsule called Freedom by the crew.
“We truly thank each and every one of you for making this possible. Now let Falcon roar and Freedom ring, “NASA astronaut Kel Lindgren, the commander, said on the radio. Minutes later, their recycled booster landed on an ocean platform and their capsule safely orbited the Earth. “It was a great ride,” he said.
SpaceX capsules are fully automated – which opens space gates to a wider clientele – and are designed to accommodate a wider range of body sizes. At the same time, NASA and the European Space Agency are pushing for more female astronauts.
While two black women visited the space station during the shuttle era, none of them moved for long. Watkins, a geologist on NASA’s shortlist for a moon landing mission in the coming years, sees his mission as “an important milestone, in my opinion, for both the agency and the country.”
She acknowledged the supportive family and mentors – including May Jamison, the first black woman in space in 1992 – for “finally being able to live my dream”.
Watkins also applauded another geologist: Apollo 17’s Harrison Schmidt, who walked on the moon in 1972. She invited the retired astronaut to the launch, along with his wife. “We kind of think of Jessica’s team,” he said, smiling.
“Those of us who boarded Saturn V are a little tired of the smaller rockets,” Schmidt said after SpaceX took off. “But it was still something, and there was a geologist on board. I hope it will help her to be part of one of Artemis’ crews going to the moon.”
Like Watkins, NASA astronaut and test pilot Bob Hines is making his first space flight. This is the second visit for Lindgren, a doctor and the only female astronaut of the European Space Agency Samantha Cristoforetti, a former pilot of a fighter jet in the Italian Air Force.
Christophoretti turned 45 on Tuesday, “so she is really celebrating and very happy with a big smile in the capsule,” said European Space Agency Director-General Josef Ashbacher. “She really is a role model and she’s doing a great job of doing just that.”
The just-completed private flight was NASA’s first immersion in space tourism after years of opposition. The space agency said the three people, who paid $ 55 million each to visit the space station, mingled while doing experiments and educational activities. They were accompanied by a former NASA astronaut hired by the Houston-based Axiom Space, which organizes the flight.
“The International Space Station is not a place to rest. This is not an amusement park. This is an international laboratory, and they absolutely understood and respected that goal, “said NASA Flight Director Zeb Scoville.
NASA also hired Boeing to transport astronauts after withdrawing the shuttles. The company will make another attempt next month to deliver an empty capsule to the crew to the space station, after software and other problems disrupted the test flight in 2019 and prevented a repeat last summer.
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