“Three, two, one…” Four astronauts, three Americans and one German, flew Wednesday evening for a six-month mission in orbit in the International Space Station (ISS).
They must replace the crew which has just left the station, which included the Frenchman Thomas Pesquet, who returned to Earth overnight from Monday to Tuesday.
NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Kayla Barron and Tom Marshburn, and their European Space Agency (ESA) teammate Matthias Maurer, took off aboard their SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday at 3 a.m. PST. ) from the base at Cape Canaveral, in the US state of Florida.
Their Dragon capsule is due to dock with the ISS on Friday at 1:10 am.
# Crew3 ... 2 ... 1 ... and liftoff!
Three @NASA_Astronauts and one @ESA astronaut are on their way to the @Space_Station aboard the @SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance: pic.twitter.com/dxobsFb4Pa
- NASA (@NASA) November 11, 2021
Their take-off was greeted by loud applause in SpaceX's control room, and for good reason: like the return of Thomas Pesquet, it has been postponed several times due to weather risks, but also to a "minor health problem. At one of the astronauts, on which Nasa did not provide more details.
Their rocket should have taken off ten days earlier.
No handover with Thomas Pesquet's crew
Due to the delay on the ground, the space agency had chosen to bring the crew of Crew-2, including Thomas Pesquet, back to Earth before taking off Crew-3.
The handover period between the two crews, which normally takes place in zero gravity for a few days, was therefore unable to take place.
Read also Thomas Pesquet back on Earth, and after?
"The Moon, that's one of the possibilities"
The mission is called Crew-3 because it is the third operational to the ISS provided by SpaceX on behalf of NASA, but it is actually the fifth time that Elon Musk's company has launched humans. in orbit. Before Crew-1 and Crew-2, a test mission (Demo-2) had sent two astronauts to the ISS. In September, SpaceX also launched four tourists for three days in space, independent of NASA.
The crew of Crew-3 embarked on Wednesday in a brand new Dragon capsule, the example of which was called "Endurance".
For American Tom Marshburn, this will be the third time in space.
He already flew aboard a space shuttle in 2009, then a Soyuz rocket in 2012-2013.
The other three astronauts, however, will make the trip for the first time.
Matthias Maurer will be the twelfth German to end up in orbit.
All four # Crew3 astronauts have boarded their @SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and are on the #CountdownToLaunch.
From left to right: @Astro_Matthias, @AstroMarshburn, @Astro_Raja and Kayla Barron: pic.twitter.com/RjK27K75Na
- NASA (@NASA) November 10, 2021
They will be greeted by the American Mark Vande Hei, who stayed up there and who celebrated his birthday on Wednesday, alone in the American segment of the station.
Two Russian cosmonauts are also on board.
Install solar panels on the ISS and… eat
The mission will include many experiences.
One of them aims to observe the effects of the diet on the intestinal flora and the immune system of astronauts, their defenses being often weakened by a prolonged stay in space.
They will thus be able to consume a larger selection of freeze-dried fruits and vegetables (squash, kale, etc.) as well as barramundi, a fish.
Read alsoFour spacewalks, 200 experiences: Thomas Pesquet's successful six months aboard the ISS
Crew-3 astronauts will also carry out spacewalks, in particular to continue installing new solar panels on the ISS.
They will also host two tourist missions: Japanese people brought by a Russian Soyuz spacecraft at the end of the year, then in February 2022 passengers from the Ax-1 mission, organized by the company Axiom Space in partnership with SpaceX.
