The capsule should arrive at the station on Sunday morning; for the first time, a US release is made with each slot occupied by a country
Four astronauts from four different countries. They have to reach International Space Station (ISS) orbiting in its capsule SpaceX Sunday 27, replacing four astronauts who have lived there since March. A NASA astronaut was accompanied on the pre-dawn takeoff on Kennedy Space Center by the pilots of Denmark, Japan AND Russia. They shook gloved hands as they reached the eye socket.
It was the first release of United States of America where each spaceship seat was occupied by a different country – until now, the NASA they always included two or three of their own countries on SpaceX taxi flights. A timing coincidence led to these designations, officials said.
“To explore space we have to do it together,” said Josef Aschbacher, ESA’s director general, a few minutes before lift-off. “Space is global and international cooperation is essential,” he said.
The company’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 3:27 a.m., lighting up the skies along Florida’s Space Coast. The mission, known as Crew-7, is commanded by NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, a helicopter pilot and Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. They are joined by Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, Danish European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen and Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa.
SpaceX’s first stage booster returned to Cape Canaveral several minutes after liftoff, an added surprise to the thousands of spectators gathered in the early morning darkness.
The flight was delayed a day after NASA teams decided to spend more time ensuring that all of the spacecraft’s environmental control and life support systems Dragon they worked properly.
If all goes to plan, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule will arrive at the space station Sunday at 8:50 a.m. ET. The crew is expected to spend about six months in the orbiting laboratory performing scientific experiments before returning to Earth aboard the same Dragon capsule they arrived in.
Another NASA astronaut will be launched to the station from Kazakhstan in mid-September under a barter deal, along with two Russians.
With that, SpaceX has already put seven crews into orbit for NASA. Boeing was hired around the same time, almost a decade ago, but has not yet performed manned flights and its capsule will remain on the ground until 2024, due to parachute problems, among other things.
Who are the astronauts?
Jasmin Moghbeli, a US Navy pilot who serves as commander, said the crew composition demonstrates “what we can do when we work together in harmony”. She will be joined on the mission by Danish Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency (ESA); Satoshi Furukawa, from Japan; and Konstantin Borisov from Russia.
“We are a united team with a common mission,” NASA’s Jasmin Moghbeli said over the radio from orbit.
Astronauts’ paths to space couldn’t be more different. Moghbeli’s parents fled Iran during the 1979 revolution. She Born in Germany and raised on Long Island, New York, she enlisted in the Marines and flew attack helicopters in Afghanistan. The first-time space traveler hopes to show Iranian girls that they, too, can aim high. “Faith itself is a really powerful thing,” she said before the flight.
Mogensen worked on oil rigs off the coast of West Africa after earning an engineering degree. To people intrigued by his choice of career he said “in the future we’re going to need space drillers,” like Bruce Willis’ character in the movie “Armageddon” who kills asteroids. He is convinced that the experience on the platform led to his selection as the first Danish astronaut.
Furukawa spent ten years as a surgeon before being selected to become an astronaut in Japan and, like Mogensen, has visited the station before.
Borisov, a newcomer to space, turned to engineering after studying economics. He runs a freediving school in Moscow and judges the sport, in which divers avoid oxygen tanks and hold their breath underwater.
One benefit of an international crew, they noted, is food. Among the delicacies on the way up: a Persian herb stew, a Danish chocolate, and a Japanese mackerel./W.Post, ApEsp and AP
Source: Terra
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