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NASA astronauts, who left Florida on Friday (23), have already arrived at the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX spacecraft.
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The Falcon 9 rocket lit up at dawn at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It is the third manned mission of the company SpaceX. Entrepreneur Elon Musk, who runs SpaceX, says it is the beginning of a new space era, that of commercial space exploration.
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Now, the missions are much cheaper because the equipment is recycled. The Falcon rocket had already been used. And after the launch, he returned to Earth for future missions.
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The Dragon Endeavor spacecraft, with four astronauts on board, already visited the International Space Station in May 2020. Another SpaceX spacecraft, Dragon Resilience, has been attached to the station since November. He also took four astronauts and returned to Earth on Wednesday (28).
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Endeavor arrived at the station at dawn on Saturday (24). The coupling was fully automatic controlled by the on-board computers. The astronauts – two Americans, one Japanese and one French – were greeted by colleagues from the previous SpaceX mission and by two Russians and an American who arrived at the station in early April.
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With 11 on board, the maximum capacity gives the impression of overcrowding. But the station has six rooms for the crew to sleep. And they are all vaccinated and tested for Covid-19. When the Resilience class leaves, on the 28th, it will be more comfortable. In October, Resilience returns with four more astronauts.
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SpaceX ships ended a long period when Americans depended on Russian ships to go into space. For Russia, it was great: in total, NASA paid $ 5 billion for transportation. But that source has dried up and Russia has announced that it will leave the International Station in 2025 and build its own station.
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The International Space Station has been in orbit since 1998, but it will only work until 2030, when it will be dismantled and the pieces will fall into the Pacific Ocean. Then another era will begin to conquer space: the first mission to Mars.
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