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On Monday night, four astronauts were launched into space from SpaceX’s Crew Dragon space capsule in Florida.
The destination is the International Space Station ISS and the trip will last around 27 hours.
This is the first time that SpaceX has brought an entire team of NASA astronauts on their journey into space. This is also the second time in history that the Falcon rocket has been used to send people, writes the BBC.
Did you get off? Launch of SpaceX’s First Manned Rocket
Spaceflight is a great political and technological victory for the United States, which since 2011 has sent its astronauts into space from Russia.
Phil McAlister, head of NASA’s Commercial Space Development Program, calls the moment a milestone, writes CNBC:
– This may not seem so important at the moment, but in 20 years I think we will see this moment as a major turning point in our exploration and exploitation of space.
IN SPACE: Astronauts Victor Glover, Michael Hopkins, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi before boarding the Falcon Rocket in Florida on Sunday.
The four astronauts who are on space travel are NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, and Jaxa’s Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi.
Once there, they will spend about six months on the space station. Here there are already a NASA astronaut and two Russian Roscosmos astronauts.
Trump and Biden congratulate
US President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter that Monday night’s launch was a success.
– NASA was nearing disaster when we took over. It is now again the “hottest” and most advanced space center in the world, he writes, adding that it lags far behind the competition.
US President-Elect Joe Biden also congratulates NASA and SpaceX on the successful launch:
– This is a testament to how powerful science is and what we can achieve by harnessing our innovation, ingenuity and determination. I am with all Americans and Japanese in wishing the astronauts good luck on their journey, he writes on Twitter.
SpaceX is the first private company to launch astronauts into space. NASA has invested a lot of money in the company and its goal is to use the private sector to make it cheaper to send people into space, writes CNBC.
However, SpaceX chief Elon Musk is unlikely to be present during the launch at the Kennedy Center in Florida – he said Saturday that he probably has a mild version of the covid-19 disease.
The development of SpaceX has been going on for a long time. In March 2017, for the first time, they managed to get a launch vehicle back to Earth on its own, after several failed attempts and explosions.
Since then, they have been transporting satellites into space, but the plan has always been to transport humans. However, Elon Musk’s ultimate goal is not the space station – he wants to go to Mars. In 2016, he said the plan is to send humans to Mars by 2024.
