SpaceX Crew Dragon With Four Astronauts Blasts Into Orbit, Heads To Space Station

On Thursday, SpaceX and NASA successfully launched a four-person crew to the International Space Station after a delay earlier in the week. The Crew-6 mission includes two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut, and an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates, which was launched using an autonomously operated Crew Dragon capsule named Endeavour atop a Falcon 9 rocket.

The launch took place at 0034 ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and after 12 minutes, the rocket and capsule separated while in orbit. The capsule is expected to reach the ISS at 0117 ET on Friday.

Liftoff of Crew-6! pic.twitter.com/BucEYeIIFe

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 2, 2023

This launch was the second attempt after the first attempt on Monday was canceled due to a technical issue with the rocket. Since 2020, SpaceX has launched seven crewed missions on behalf of NASA. 

Last week, Russia sent an uncrewed spacecraft to the ISS to act as a lifeboat for three crew members whose return Soyuz spacecraft was damaged in December. The group consisted of one US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts and were initially scheduled to return to Earth this month but had to postpone their return until later this year.