A SpaceX rocket carried four astronauts into orbit Wednesday night. The repeatedly delayed flight occurred just two days after SpaceX brought four other astronauts home from the International Space Station.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft with NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, and Kayla Barron, as well as ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer, into orbit to begin a six-month science mission on the space station.
This mission is the first spaceflight for astronauts Chari, Barron, and Maurer, and the third for Marshburn. Marshburn is the sixth person to launch from Earth on three different spacecraft.
“It was a great ride, better than we imagined,” mission commander Raja Chari said shortly after the spacecraft reached orbit.
Chari, Barron and Maurer were making their debut spaceflights with Wednesday's launch, becoming the 599th, 600th and 601st humans in space.
“Ensuring our crews have safe transportation and continued access to space is an enormous responsibility,” said Steve Stich, manager with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. “We know the crew is excited to get on station and settle into their long-duration mission. The NASA and SpaceX team remains vigilant in support of their safe arrival and eventual return to Earth.”
Live video footage webcast by NASA showed the four crew members seated calmly and strapped into the pressurized cabin of their gleaming white SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, wearing their helmeted white and black flight suits several minutes after lift-off.
The flight marks the third "operational" space station crew sent to orbit aboard a Dragon capsule since NASA and SpaceX teamed up to resume space launches from American soil last year, following a nine-year hiatus at the end of the US space shuttle program in 2011.
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It was also drizzling Wednesday night when the four astronauts said goodbye to their families for six months — with everyone huddling under umbrellas — but it cleared up by launch time.
“Enjoy your holidays among the stars. We’ll be waving as you fly by,” SpaceX launch director Mark Soltys radioed to the crew.