SpaceX has successfully launched its Crew-2 mission, carrying four humans to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA on the U.S. company’s third human spaceflight.
The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the crew aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off today, Friday, April 23 from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 5:49 A.M. EDT.
The vehicle lifted off in the darkness of the early morning, soaring into the skies above Florida on its way to the orbiting space station.
On board were NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, along with Japan’s Akihiko Hoshide and ESA’s Thomas Pesquet, the first European to fly with SpaceX.
“Watching a human spaceflight launch will never get old,” said NASA Acting Administrator, Steve Jurczyk, following the launch. “It was just spectacular.”
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California.
It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars. SpaceX manufactures the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles, several rocket engines, Dragon cargo and crew spacecraft and Starlink satellites.
