The company's total crewed flight tally now stands at seven after it successfully launched its fourth astronauts to the International Space Station before dawn Wednesday.
The Crew-4 astronauts are riding on the new Dragon capsule that was lifted off from historic Launch Pad 39A here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The sun rises at 0752 GMT. The Dragon and its four passengers are going to dock with the International Space Station around 8:15 p.m. Tonight is April 28.
The crew of the Crew Dragon Freedom are looking forward to their time in space.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 was successfully landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas (ASOG) in the Atlantic Ocean about 10 minutes after launch. In June, November and December of last year, it launched theCRS-22 cargo mission and Crew-3 flight for NASA. B1067 is expected to return to Port Canaveral in the near future.
Live updates: SpaceX's Crew-4 astronaut mission for NASA
In pictures: Amazing launch photos of SpaceX's Crew-4 launch
There are 4 images, the first one is image 1 and the 2nd one is image 3.
The Crew-4 launch comes on the heels of another mission flown by the same company, which launched to the International Space Station on April 8 and splashed down off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, on Monday afternoon. The launch of Crew-4 marks a new and historic cadence for the company, which has now launched two crews from the same pad less than three weeks apart.
The launch date for Crew-4 was pushed back because of the delayed departure from the International Space Station. NASA and SpaceX support personnel wanted up to two days between Crew-4's launch and the return of the Dragon capsule, because they wanted complete data reviews. 39 hours between operations gives us enough time to finish the work.
The attention given to the Dragon's parachute deployment systems was highlighted in a conversation between the NASA Certification Manager for the Commercial Crew Program and Space.com.
There was a lag in parachute deployment during the return to Earth of several previous missions, including Crew-2 and the private Inspiration4 flight, as well as one of the company's robotic Dragon cargo missions to the International Space Station. NASA and SpaceX investigations determined the lag deployment to be a nominal occurrence for the parachute systems. Koch stated that, while there was some concern with the chutes leading up to Crew 3, teams would do the same safety checks after the launch of Crew 4.
The Crew-4 astronauts are expected to arrive at the space station shortly after the Crew-3 astronauts.
The crew of the Dragon ferrying this round of astronauts to the International Space Station named it Freedom, according to a March 23 message from the mission commander. The name celebrates a fundamental human right and the industry and innovation that comes from the human spirit.
In a call with the press on March 31, Lindgren spoke of the importance of NASA being able to resume crewed launches after the retirement of the space shuttle.
There are pictures of NASA's space shuttle program.
Freedom 7 was the first American human spaceflight and it was the inspiration for Alan Shepard's suborbital flight in 1961. In an homage to that flight, Lindgren explained how the crew wanted their vessel to represent how far we have come.
The Mercury-Redstone rocket used for Freedom 7 is on display at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. We wanted to celebrate freedom for a new generation of space players.
A reflection of how far we have come. Jessica Watkins is a mission specialist. Watkins will be the first black woman to complete a long-term stay on the International Space Station.
During their six month stay on the International Space Station, the Crew-4 astronauts will have at least two NASA spacewalks and a chance for mission specialist Cristoforetti to aid in a spacewalk with Russian crew members.
Sometime in September, following the launch of Crew-5, Freedom will return to Earth with a splashdown in one of over a half-dozen qualified landing sites off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic Ocean.
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