SpaceX launched a 4-member crew to the International Space Station with the help of already used rocket and capsule, the Associated Press reported.
The astronauts from the USA, Japan and France are due to reach the ISS early Saturday morning after a 23-hour flight with the same Dragon capsule used by SpaceX last May. They will spend six months aboard the orbital laboratory.
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For the first time, the company relied on an already used capsule and rocket to launch NASA astronauts into orbit, after supplying the ISS with cargo for years. The rocket was used last November during the second astronaut flight. Following the trend, crew commander Shane Kimbrow and the other members they wrote their initials on the soot of the rocket, hoping to set a tradition.
For NASA astronaut Megan MacArthur, flying is like déjà vu. She was seated in the same chair and in the same capsule with which her husband Bob Benken was launched during the first manned spaceX flight.
The crew members are the Japanese Akihiko Hoshide and the Frenchman Tom Pesque, the first European to fly a commercial manned capsule.
The head of the company, Elon Musk, wearing a mask, held a brief meeting with NASA astronauts before their flight to the Kennedy Space Center.
Despite the early hour, many spectators flocked to nearby roads around the spaceport to watch the Falcon rocket launch one hour before sunrise. This flight was postponed by one day in order to take advantage of the better weather conditions on the East Coast of the United States, the agency recalls.
French astronaut Thomas Pesque flew into space for the second time as commander of the four-member crew of the International Space Station. He is the first European aboard the private spacecraft “Dragon 2” of the American company SpaceX.
As commander of the crew, the French astronaut has to perform a hundred scientific experiments and four spacewalks.
Peske first flew aboard the Soyuz in 2016 in six months at the orbital station.
In addition to the European Space Agency’s experiments, he became famous for the space communication revolution with a regular logbook on French television and radio and 85,000 amazing photos of our planet that delighted his fans on social media.
Numerous fans of the space hero of France are already looking forward to the new episode.
And if, in his words, the new mission is a “great honor”, French experts note the lag of the European project with the Ariana launch vehicle in the face of strong US competition.
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