CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX and NASA on Sunday successfully launched their joint Crew-8 mission to the International Space Station from the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Together, NASA and SpaceX launched a crew of four to the ISS within the Dragon spacecraft, marking SpaceX’s eighth crew rotation mission to the ISS within NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Sunday’s launch was the third attempt, after being scrubbed twice previously due to bad weather.
Engineers determined that a small crack on the hatch seal would not present enough of an issue to abort the launch, and the mission achieved liftoff at 10:53 p.m. Mission crew on the ground cheered when the first-stage booster separated and Dragon proceeded toward space shortly before 11 p.m.
The NASA astronauts include commander Matthew Dominick, pilot Michael Barratt, mission specialist Jeanette Epps, and Russian Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, who is also acting as mission specialist. This is the first mission to the ISS for all except Barratt, who is now making his third visit.
The Dragon spacecraft was launched by the Falcon 9 rocket, which SpaceX describes as a “reusable, two-stage rocket,” making it the first reusable rocket of its kind. Once it detaches from Dragon, it will land at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The crew, set to return in Fall 2024, will spend 6 months at the ISS. Days ago, administrators revealed they found a small air leak at the space station.
“It’s not an impact to Crew-8, but I didn’t want anybody to be surprised,” ISS Program Manager Joel Montalbano said during a Crew-8 mission briefing. He said they don’t believe the leak will impact crew safety, but that “teams are watching it.”
While aboard the ISS, often referred to as a “floating laboratory,” the crew will perform more than 200 science experiments as part of the long-term mission to prepare humanity for long-term stays in space.
Some of the experiments include bringing stem cells to…
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