On Friday April 23, four Astronauts from 3 different nations successfully launched into space from the Kennedy Space Center.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 5:49 a.m. EST. The Crew Dragon spacecraft separated from the Falcon 9 upper stage 12 minutes after liftoff, while the Falcon 9 first stage landed in the Atlantic ocean on a droneship. The spacecraft docked at the International Space Station at about 5:10 a.m. EST on April 24.
On board the Crew Dragon Spacecraft are NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.
To learn more about this mission, the spacecraft, the Astronauts aboard and to rewatch the launch, click here!
This is the first human spaceflight mission to fly astronauts on a flight-proven Falcon 9 and Dragon! The Falcon 9 first stage supporting this mission previously launched the Crew-1 mission in November 2020, and the Dragon spacecraft previously flew Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to and from the International Space Station during SpaceX’s Demo-2 mission in 2020.
The Falcon 9 is the first orbital space rocket capable of reflight. The Dragon is the only spacecraft currently flying that is capable of returning significant amounts of cargo to Earth as well as the first private spacecraft to take humans to the international space station.
