SpaceX Launches Back into Space in NASA’s Newest Mission

KOMPAS.com – Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX launched a crew of astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA on Wednesday (27/4/2022) morning.

Astronauts are accompanied by medical doctors turned space explorers and geologists who specialize in studying landslides on Mars.

Reported ReutersSpaceX’s launch vehicle, consists of a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket aboard, with a Crew Dragon capsule dubbed the Freedom.

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The vehicle is set to take off with its four crew members at 3:52 a.m. EDT (0752 GMT) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

If all goes according to plan, three US astronauts and a European Space Agency (ESA) crew from Italy will reach the space station about 17 hours later.

They will embark on a six-month science mission orbiting about 250 miles (420 km) above Earth.

During a pre-launch briefing on Tuesday (4/26/2022) NASA officials said the forecast was a 90 percent chance of favorable weather conditions for a timely liftoff.

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“Flying safely with a crew means you have to take it one step at a time,” said Kathryn Lueders, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations.

“We hope you will see a very, very beautiful step, and we will bring our crew safely into orbit,” he added.

The latest mission, dubbed Crew 4, will mark the fourth full ISS crew that NASA sends into orbit aboard a SpaceX vehicle.

This has been since the personal rocket venture founded by Musk, also owner of electric car maker Tesla Inc, took off.

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In all, SpaceX has launched six previous human spaceflights over the past two years.

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