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The SpaceX company’s “Crew Dragon” spacecraft took off for the first time for a regular mission into space.
The capsule took off on Sunday night (local time, CET: 1:27 am) with four astronauts on board at Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida, as live recordings from NASA’s space agency showed. “The spacecraft is on its way,” NASA wrote on Twitter.
The SpaceX company’s “Crew Dragon” took off at the head of a “Falcon 9” rocket, whose first stage returned to earth within minutes as planned and landed on a floating platform. It is a huge success for SpaceX. The capsule is expected to dock with the International Space Station on Monday night (local time) after more than 27 hours of flight.
American NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, as well as Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, will remain aboard the ISS for six months and will oversee various experiments. Astronaut Kate Rubins and her Russian colleagues Sergej Ryschikow and Sergej Kud-Swertschkow are currently at the station.
Biden first congratulates
Immediately after the start, the president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, congratulated on Twitter. The launch is a testament to the power of science “and what we can accomplish if we stifle our innovation, ingenuity and determination.”
Current US President Donald Trump celebrated the “great start” on Twitter later. NASA was a disaster when it came to power, while the space agency “has become by far the most modern and advanced space center in the world,” Trump wrote.
