NASA and SpaceX sent four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, after a first attempt was canceled the day before.
The Dragon capsule, carried by a Falcon 9 rocket, blasted off at 3:27 a.m. from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with the mission team dubbed “Crew-7” on board, in front of some 10,000 people.
“Common Mission”
The mission is commanded by the American Jasmin Moghbeli and includes the Danish Andreas Mogensen, the Japanese Satoshi Furukawa and the Russian Konstantin Borissov.
“We’ve lifted off,” NASA announced on X (formerly Twitter), and then cheers erupted from the control room as the capsule separated from the rocket.
“We may be from four different countries, but we are a united team with a common mission,” Jasmin Moghbeli said after the split.
Liftoff was originally scheduled for Friday but was postponed to examine a component of the Dragon capsule.
This is the eighth time SpaceX has launched a crew into orbit on behalf of the space agency. Other private companies have contracts with NASA, including Boeing, which however did not carry out any missions.
Source: BFM TV
