SpaceX launches relief crew for NASA's stranded astronauts on ISS - VIDEO
Four astronauts are flying toward the International Space Station (ISS) to relieve crew members who have been waiting for a ride home since last summer.
SpaceX launched the Crew Dragon capsule Endurance on a Falcon 9 rocket this evening (March 14) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) here on Florida's Space Coast, News.Az reports, citing Space.com.
The mission, called Crew-10, lifted off from KSC's Launch Complex-39A at 7:03 p.m. EDT (2303 GMT), carrying mission commander Anne McClain and mission pilot Nichole Ayers, both of NASA, and mission specialists Takuya Onishi of JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and Kirill Peskov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
The quartet are headed for a six-month rotation aboard the ISS and will be relieving their Crew-9 counterparts, two of whom have been aboard the orbital laboratory for an unexpectedly long stay that began last June, with the first-ever crewed mission of Boeing's new Starliner spacecraft.
Crew-10 was originally supposed to launch on Wednesday (March 12), but a hydraulics issue with ground equipment scuttled that try. The mission launched about half an hour before sunset today, the fire from the mission's Falcon 9 casting a golden-hour glow over Florida's Space Coast.
Ascending into the clear sky, the rocket's engines shut off about 2.5 minutes after liftoff, followed by stage separation and a boost-back burn by the vehicle's first stage, which maneuvered itself for a touchdown on SpaceX's Landing Zone-1 at Cape Canaveral approximately five minutes later.
The Falcon 9 second stage rocketed onward for another 7.5 minutes following first-stage separation, releasing Endurance and her crew into low Earth orbit on a trajectory to catch up to the ISS within about 28 hours.
"Thank you to all of the teams from across the world who contributed to the launch today," McClain said shortly after the picture-perfect spacecraft separation.
"Spaceflight is tough, but humans are tougher," she added. "Days like today are made possible only when people choose the harder right over the easier wrong, build relationships, choose cooperation and believe in the inherent goodness of all people across the world. My family and friends, without you, I would not be here. Explore boldly, live gratefully, and go Crew-10!”
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