Space X launches its third manned mission to the International Space Station

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• Eight people are wanted to accompany a millionaire to the Moon

Space X has successfully launched this Friday, after a postponement due to bad weather, its third manned mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The project represents an important endorsement of private collaboration with international space agencies - the European (ESA) participates for the first time with the trip of an astronaut - and is a milestone in the reuse of a rocket and a capsule, a strategy that allows lower the cost of space exploration. The

Falcon 9

rocket will

return to Earth for an upright landing on an unmanned ship and the

Crew Dragon

capsule

is scheduled to dock on the ISS.

The mission, called

Crew-2,

has successfully taken off from platform 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with Frenchman Thomas Pesquet, the first European to fly in a

SpaceX

Crew Dragon

capsule

.

Pesquet travels accompanied by the Americans Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur and the Japanese Akihiko Hoshide.

Pesquet will be followed by German Matthias Maurer and Italian Samantha Cristoforetti.

This launch is the third manned heading to the ISS in which Space X is available, the company selected by NASA to develop the space vehicles with which it wants to return astronauts to the Moon.

The

Crew-2 team will

live on the ISS for a few days with the

Crew-1

astronauts

, as well as three other Russian cosmonauts.

This launch is the third manned heading to the ISS in which Space X is available, the company selected by NASA to develop the space vehicles with which it wants to return astronauts to the Moon.

The first mission, a test flight called

Demo-2

, took place last year and allowed NASA to become independent of Russian rockets to bring astronauts to the ISS, a collaboration that was established after the end of the shuttle program.

"It's always easier the third time you do it," Daniel Forrestel, NASA launch integration manager, told AFP.

“I would never want to describe space flight as routine.

More familiar is a good way to describe it, ”he added.

Reuse

The

Crew-2

mission

reuses the

Demo-2

capsule

and the

Falcon 9

thruster

,

which has already been used in unmanned missions. Ahead of the launch, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen from Denmark told AFP that the mission was also a big step for Europe, which has named it

Alpha

after its own naming convention. "On the one hand, it means a lot, of course, that an astronaut goes to the International Space Station, but at the same time it is also another in a long list of missions," he noted.

Collaboration between NASA, ESA and Space X is considered key in the

Artemisa

joint program

,

which aims to return to the Moon and have a support orbiter for human missions on the satellite.

The

Crew-2

mission

will carry out a hundred experiments over half a year.

One of them is known as Tissue Chips, which uses different types of cells with which the aging of the immune system, kidney function and the loss of muscle mass in space will be studied.

The mission also plans to maintain the solar panels.

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