NASA and SpaceX successfully launched four Crew-5 astronauts into the International Space Station (ISS), on Wednesday, October 5.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft departed Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on time, at noon.
We're on our way to space!#Crew5Taken off @NASAKennedyAt noon ET (1600 GMT) and heading to the @Space_StationFor six months of scientific discovery pic.twitter.com/p2AvbIzo9V
— NASA (@NASA) October 5, 2022
Just over eight minutes after launch, the rocket’s first-stage booster made a perfect landing on the Please Read the InstructionsA drone ship is waiting at the ocean’s bottom, opening the way for the rocket’s return to space.
Falcon 9’s first stage booster has landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship pic.twitter.com/qKk3uk4J9B
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 5, 2022
Just over 12 minutes after leaving Kennedy, the Crew Dragon capsule successfully separated from Falcon 9’s second stage, setting the astronauts on course for the space station.
Dragon, fly!@SpaceX's Endurance spacecraft has separated from its Falcon 9 rocket and is on its way to the @Space_Station. Follow our #Crew5Blog for the most recent mission updates https://t.co/t5aCFxh78H pic.twitter.com/EskQMDB7fd
— NASA (@NASA) October 5, 2022
Finally, here’s some footage from inside the capsule as it heads toward the space station. One of the astronauts offers some words about Albert Einstein, a toy version of which acted as the crew’s zero-g indicator so they could see the moment when their spacecraft had reached a microgravity environment a few minutes after launch.
"Imagination encircles the world." —Albert Einstein
The zero gravity indicator #Crew5It is revealed that the mission was a toy Einstein. It's used to show when the capsule reaches the weightlessness of microgravity as it circles the globe en route to the @Space_Station. pic.twitter.com/wOE7GbWfNA
— NASA (@NASA) October 5, 2022
Crew-5 comprises NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, along with Koichi Wakata of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and Anna Kikina of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency.
They’ll arrive at the space station on Thursday afternoon ET, and will spend about four months living and working aboard the space-based laboratory as it orbits at around 250 miles above Earth.
Mann, Cassada and Kikina are making their first space missions. Wakata on the other side has a lot of experience. He’s been on four orbital missions already, including the first in 1996, and the most recent in 2013.
The Crew-5 mission is SpaceX’s eighth crewed flight since the first one in the summer of 2020. Crew-5 is the seventh mission to the space station. Crew-5 was the other crewed flight. It involved the first all-civilian mission. For several days, remained in low-Earth orbitYou can dock at the ISS without any additional charges.
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