A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon Endeavour capsule carrying the Crew-8 mission launches from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart in Florida on March 3, 2024.
Chandan Khanna/AFP through Getty Photos
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Chandan Khanna/AFP through Getty Photos
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon Endeavour capsule carrying the Crew-8 mission launches from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart in Florida on March 3, 2024.
Chandan Khanna/AFP through Getty Photos
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket thundered off the launch pad on the Kennedy Area Heart in Florida throughout a fiery nighttime liftoff simply earlier than 11 p.m. ET on Sunday. 4 individuals have been aboard the capsule as NASA’s Crew-8 mission will get underway.
For the subsequent 28 hours, the capsule will race to the Worldwide Area Station because it orbits greater than 250 miles above the Earth. As soon as it catches up, it’s going to dock autonomously round 3 a.m. ET on Tuesday and the crew will spend the subsequent six months on the orbital laboratory.
There was some concern within the minutes earlier than launch a few “small crack” seen in a seal when the capsule’s facet hatch was closed. SpaceX advised the crew there can be no concern throughout liftoff – however on the capsule’s return when the hovering temperatures of re-entry might pose security issues. After evaluation, SpaceX’s engineers mentioned they have been assured it might not be a problem for the mission.
The Crew-8 mission members are three NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut. The commander is NASA’s Matthew Dominick, pilot Michael Barratt, mission specialists Jeanette Epps and Alexander Grebenkin of Roscosmos, Russia’s house company.
That is the primary spaceflight for Dominick, Epps and Grebenkin. It is the third for Barratt.
Throughout their time on the I.S.S., NASA says the crew plans to conduct greater than 200 experiments and scientific demonstrations. These embody finding out the results of microgravity and UV radiation on vegetation, utilizing stem cells to create fashions to review degenerative illness and testing whether or not carrying strain cuffs on the legs might forestall fluid shifts and scale back well being issues in astronauts.
They’re going to relieve the 4 individuals on the Crew-7 mission which launched final August and is about to splashdown off the Florida coast in a few week.
The I.S.S. has been continuously occupied since November 2000. Sometimes seven persons are aboard because the soccer field-sized station circles the earth at 5 miles per second.
That is the thirteenth time SpaceX has launched people into house since 2020 and comes a day after the fifth anniversary of SpaceX’s first uncrewed demonstration launch of the Crew Dragon capsule. And, with this mission, the personal firm has despatched 50 individuals into orbit. By comparability, throughout the Apollo period (together with the lunar missions, Skylab launches and Apollo-Soyuz), NASA launched 45 into house.
Members of NASA’s Crew-8 mission pause earlier than heading to launch advanced 39A on the Kennedy Area Heart in Florida on March 3, 2024. They’re (from L) Roscosmos cosmonaut and mission specialist Alexander Grebenkin, NASA astronaut and pilot Michael Barratt, NASA astronaut and commander Matthew Dominick and NASA astronaut and mission specialist Jeanette Epps.
Gregg Newton/AFP through Getty Photos
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Gregg Newton/AFP through Getty Photos
Members of NASA’s Crew-8 mission pause earlier than heading to launch advanced 39A on the Kennedy Area Heart in Florida on March 3, 2024. They’re (from L) Roscosmos cosmonaut and mission specialist Alexander Grebenkin, NASA astronaut and pilot Michael Barratt, NASA astronaut and commander Matthew Dominick and NASA astronaut and mission specialist Jeanette Epps.
Gregg Newton/AFP through Getty Photos