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Launch officials met today at Kennedy Space Center from Florida, where four astronauts started shortly after 2 am Greek time, with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for a six-month mission to International Space Station
SpaceX launches 4 astronauts to the @Spacial station since @POTKennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.
It is the second time in nearly a decade that astronauts have been launched into orbit from the US. @SpaceX #CrewDragon pic.twitter.com/5FyEiVCpZt
– Bus driver ™ (@kondektorbus_) November 16, 2020
The crew consists of three astronauts from your space office United States (POT) – Major Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and the prominent experienced astronaut Japanese space agency (Jaxa), Sochi Noguchi.
The team will spend approx. six months at the station. NASA says it has entered the new era of purchasing crew transportation services from private contractors rather than owning and operating its own vehicles, as has been the case with most retired space shuttles.
She is the first fully functional mission for a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.
It will mark SpaceX’s second launch overall. The first Dragon Crew to launch humans, still considered a test mission, took off in May.
The United States has not been able to get its own astronauts to and from the International Space Station since 2011, when the Space Shuttle program was withdrawn. The main objective of this trip was to collect data on the performance of the Capusle Crew Dragon.
LIVE NOW: We are ready to #LaunchAmerica. It’s you? 🚀
See NASA coverage @SpaceX Mission Crew-1. Take off is 7:27 pm ET: https://t.co/cmklwtwzns https://t.co/cmklwtwzns
– NASA (@NASA) November 15, 2020
NASA wants to make several trips to the ISS each year, transporting new groups of astronauts and, perhaps, one day, private citizens.
These frequent trips will keep the ISS better staffed than it has been in the past decade, according to the Americans.
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