Crew-4 astronauts Jessica Watkins, Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren and Samantha Cristoforetti on the Crew Dragon “Freedom.” (Image credit: SpaceX)
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Wed 27 April 2022:
The Crew-4 mission launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, carrying a NASA mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
The Dragon and the Crew-4 members will orbit the Earth ten times during the 16-hour voyage to the ISS, SpaceX stated in a tweet as the mission took off.
Crew-4 on orbit pic.twitter.com/pNlRTTdSYE
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 27, 2022
Crew-4 will carry out scientific experiments including conduct breakthrough research on growing plants without soil in space.
Liftoff of Falcon 9 and Dragon! pic.twitter.com/sfKAOpBtU6
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 27, 2022
SpaceX’s latest mission comes just days after a crew successfully landed off the Florida coast after spending over two weeks aboard the International Space Station in a boost for the commercial sector.
Crew-4 astronauts Jessica Watkins, Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren and Samantha Cristoforetti on the Crew Dragon “Freedom.” (Image credit: SpaceX)
Onboard the spacecraft are three NASA astronauts, including Mission Commander Kjell Lindgren, Pilot Bob Hines, and Mission Specialist Jessica Watkins and the European Space Agency’s Mission Specialist Samantha Cristoforetti, NASA said.
The NASA mission is the first with an equal number of men and women and the first long-term flight with a Black woman, Jessica Watkins.
Crew-4 is go for launch pic.twitter.com/5ZY2K5VFEo
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 27, 2022
The crew will spend five months at the ISS, replacing three Americans and a German who will return to Earth in a week. Three Russians also live at the space station.
As SpaceX and NASA try to commercialize space projects, Axiom Space compensated SpaceX for transport services and NASA for use of the ISS. The three businessmen onboard the voyage allegedly paid $55 million each.
The team lands in four massive parachutes near Jacksonville, Florida, along the Atlantic Ocean.
On April 8, the crew launched out, which included Canadian financier Mark Pathy, Israeli investor Eytan Stibbe, Spanish-American astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, and real estate mogul Larry Connor.
They were only supposed to stay on the ISS for eight days, but adverse weather forced them to stay in orbit for 17 days, 15 of which were spent on the ISS.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
