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SpaceX: Four astronauts successfully flown to the ISS

2021-04-25T04:36:09.662Z


Elon Musk's space company has for the first time transported a team to the ISS with a used rocket. Things are now getting tight on the International Space Station.


Enlarge image

On approach for landing: Screenshot from the NASA livestream.

Photo: AP

Three men and a woman have arrived at the International Space Station in a space capsule called a »Crew Dragon« from the private space company SpaceX.

The four astronauts had docked at the ISS, announced SpaceX and NASA on Saturday.

They were launched on Friday from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida using a Falcon 9 launcher.

SpaceX has now brought ten astronauts to the ISS in around a year after the company had previously only transported cargo.

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"We are thrilled to be a part of the advancement of manned spaceflight and look forward to going beyond Earth's orbit to the Moon and Mars and helping one day transform humanity into a space-traveling civilization on multiple planets." said SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

The acting NASA boss Steve Jurczyk spoke of an "important milestone" and an "incredible year for NASA".

The "Crew-2", which is to remain on the ISS for around six months until the end of October, consists of the two US astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Katherine Megan McArthur as well as their Japanese colleague Akihiko Hoshide and the French Thomas Pesquet. Pesquet is the first astronaut from the European space agency Esa to fly to the ISS on board a "Crew Dragon". With the astronauts, the »Crew Dragon« also transported around 110 kilograms of supplies and materials for scientific experiments.

This is the second crew to be promoted from SpaceX to the ISS. The first - US astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, as well as their Japanese colleague Soichi Noguchi - docked at the ISS in November. They are scheduled to return to Earth in late April. Until then it will be tight on the ISS: In addition to »Crew-1«, the cosmonauts Oleg Nowizki and Pyotr Dubrow as well as the NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei have been on board the space station since the beginning of April.

"Crew-1" was the first to fly regularly with the "Crew Dragon" to the ISS after a manned test flight to the ISS last spring was successful.

After a break of almost nine years, the test was the first time that astronauts have returned to orbit from American soil - and the first time ever that they have been promoted by a private space company.

For the flight to the ISS, SpaceX used a previously used Crew Dragon capsule and rocket stage for the first time.

The rocket stage then landed safely back on earth and is to be used again to save costs.

Four more manned SpaceX flights to the ISS are currently planned.

sem / dpa-afxp

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2021-04-25

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