SpaceX has just set a new record for the fastest astronaut’s dragon flight to date.
Elon Musk’s spaceflight company launched four Crew-4 astronauts to International Space Station NASA in under 16 hours on Wednesday (April 27), the shortest flight time since SpaceX Manned flights began in 2020.
“This is the fastest docking launch we’ve ever done,” Steve Stitch, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, told reporters after the launch on Wednesday. “It’s about the same time it takes to get from New York to Singapore, so it’s kind of interesting.”
SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts launch In a new Crew Dragon capsule called Freedom and Falcon 9 at 3:52 EDT (0752 GMT) from NASA’s Pad 39A Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The astronauts arrived at the space station later that night and docked at 7:37 pm EDT (2337 GMT). Total flight time: 15 hours and 45 minutes.
Related: Stunning launch photos of SpaceX’s Crew-4 astronauts
For comparison, SpaceX’s first manned flight for NASA, The Demo-2 Mission May 2020it took about 19 hours to reach the station, while the final flight of NASA’s Crew-3 took almost a full day.
“I would say it’s lucky in terms of how it happened,” said Jesica Jensen, SpaceX’s vice president of operations and customer integration, adding that any delay could have altered the flight time. “You can vary from 10 to 20 hours of layover that you know in a day or two. It’s not really that we’ve changed anything, it’s just the orbital mechanics of where the ISS is and where it enters Florida.”
The Crew-4 mission launched three NASA astronauts and one European Space Agency astronaut to the space station to begin a six-month mission. On board dragon crewKjell Lindgren, called Freedom, was the mission commander for Crew-4; Bob Hines pilot. task specialist Jessica Watkins (all from NASA); and European Space Agency mission specialist Samantha Cristoforetti.
SpaceX’s Shortest Flight Came Before a Flight space walk NASA officials said the (ExtraVehicle Activity, or EVA in NASA parlance) was performed by two Russian astronauts outside the space station on Thursday, so docking and stabilizing the Dragon crew quickly was a bonus.
“That short date was very favorable for us,” Stitch said. “We can get to the station a little faster and we can make the preparations we need as soon as we dock to prepare the dragon for EVA.”
While the Crew-4 Dragon was SpaceX’s fastest flight to the station, it was not the fastest manned flight ever. The Russian Soyuz spacecraft still has that title Holds a Guinness World Records number For the fastest time to station B 3 hours and 3 minutes trip in October 2020.
Email Tariq Malik at [email protected] or follow him embed tweet. Follow us embed tweetE Facebook E Instagram.
–
