SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center this morning at 3:27AM ET, NASA announced today. The rocket pushed 4 astronauts on NASA’s Crew-7 mission into orbit before a scheduled Sunday morning dock with the International Space Station (ISS).
The mission brings astronauts from 4 countries to the ISS — Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA, the European Space Agency’s Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furakawa, and Konstantin Borisov, a Russian cosmonaut. When the Dragon spacecraft — named Endurance — autonomously docks with the ISS, it is going to bring the station’s crew number as much as 11 for a couple of days until board the capsule and return to Earth in a couple of days.
“Aboard station,” says NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, “the crew will conduct greater than 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations to organize for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, all while benefitting humanity on Earth.”