SpaceX and NASA have launched a new crew of astronauts on a mission to the International Space Station. Their stay is expected to last roughly six months in space. After the grounded attempt on Monday described as a “clogged filter” by the officials, Crew-6 is the second attempt to complete this mission.
The SpaceX and NASA crew includes two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut, and an astronaut from the UAE. They took off at 12:34 a.m. ET Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The vehicle “Dragon” carrying astronauts separated from the rocket into orbit is expected to spend around one day navigating in space before linking up with the space station. The capsule is scheduled to dock at 1:17 a.m. ET Friday.
Continuing the Hard Work by SpaceX and NASA
SpaceX is carrying out its seventh astronaut mission on behalf of NASA since 2020, continuing the hard work to keep the orbiting lab completely equipped with staff.
The Crew-6 consists of NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen, who has experience with three space shuttle missions, Warren “Woody” Hoburg who is flying for the first time, as well as a second astronaut from UAE to travel to space Sultan Alneyadi, along with Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. They will join the SpaceX and NASA Crew-5 astronauts who reached the space station in October 2022.
What they will do in space?
During their stay, the astronauts will look after more than 200 science and tech projects and carry out research on how some substances burn in the microgravity environment. They will also investigate microbial samples collected from the exterior of the space station. The crew will host two other missions that will take place during their stay in the space station. The first one is Boeing Crew Flight Test, under the Boeing-NASA partnership.
As scheduled in April, the flight will carry NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams to the space station. To mark the end phase of a testing and demonstration program, Boeing needs execution to certify its Starliner spacecraft for routine astronaut missions.
Shortly in May, a group of four astronauts is slated to arrive on a privately funded Axiom Mission 2 (AX-2). This program will deploy a separate SpaceX and NASA crew dragon capsule with its commander Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut who is now a private astronaut with Axiom, a space company located in Texas that negotiated and organized the mission.
Why it was needed?
SpaceX is launching its Crew-6 after Russia aims to replace Soyuz MS-22 with Soyuz MS-23. The coolant leak in Soyuz-22 had left astronauts stranded in space.
