The three American astronauts and their European Space Agency crewmate were due to arrive at the space station, orbiting some 250 miles (400 km) above the Earth, on Thursday evening following a flight of about 22 hours. The rocket's reusable lower stage separated from the rest of the spacecraft and flew itself back to Earth, touching down safely on a landing platform floating on a vessel in the Atlantic. Within about 10 minutes of lift-off, the rocket's upper stage had delivered the crew capsule to Earth orbit, according to launch commentators. 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. Three and one astronaut are on their way to the aboard the Crew Dragon Endurance: /dxobsFb4Pa- NASA November 11, 2021 EST /BSZNHTkQZ5- SpaceX November 11, 2021 Intermittent rain and clouds over the Cape earlier in the day had cast doubt on launch prospects, but the weather cleared by flight time, NASA said.ĭragon has separated from Falcon 9's second stage and is on its way to the Autonomous docking tomorrow at ~7:10 p.m. Lift-off of the Dragon spacecraft, named Endurance by the crew, was aired live from Cape Canaveral on NASA TV. The SpaceX-built launch vehicle, consisting of a Crew Dragon capsule perched atop a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket, climbed into the night sky from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as its nine Merlin engines roared to life at about 9 pm (0200 GMT Thursday). NASA and private rocket company SpaceX launched four astronauts into orbit late on Wednesday en route to the International Space Station, including a veteran spacewalker and two younger crewmates chosen to join NASA's future lunar missions.
0 kommentar(er)
