Nov 12, 2021
By: Marcia SekhoseNASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 successfully boarded the International Space Station earlier today.
Credit: NASA
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft which lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Credit: SpaceX
The Crew-3 was originally scheduled to launch on October 31 but it was delayed to November 3 due to poor weather conditions. The launch was delayed again to November 10.
Credit: SpaceX
The crew includes Indian American Raja Chari, the Crew-3 commander, two other NASA astronauts, Kayla Barron and Tom Marshburn, and the ESA’s Matthias Maurer. Crew-3 is also the second commercial crew mission to fly an ESA astronaut.
Credit: NASA
This is the first spaceflight for Chari, Barron and Maurer but the third for Mashburn who has already launched from earth on three different spacecraft.
Credit: NASA
It’s a six-month science mission on the ISS until April 2022 where the Crew-3 astronauts will conduct new and exciting research on materials science, health technologies and plant science.
Credit: NASA
The Crew-3 joined the Expedition 66 crew including NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos.
Credit: NASA
This is the fourth crewed flight sent aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule after NASA and the Elon Musk-owned company decided to resume space launches last year.
Credit: SpaceX
The Crew-3 spaceflight took place shortly after Crew-2 which launched to the space station earlier this year in April returned to earth on Monday night.
Credit: NASA