A Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft carried four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
It is SpaceX’s seventh human spaceflight in less than two years and NASA’s fifth mission to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n
Crew members include Commander Kjell Lindgren, pilot Bob Hines and mission specialists Jessica Watkins and Samantha Cristoforetti.<\/p>\n
The three U.S. astronauts and their European Space Agency (ESA) crewmate were due to arrive at the space station after a more than 16-hour flight to launch a six-month science mission about 420km above Earth. They were greeted by a team of seven, including three Russian cosmonauts.<\/p>\n
The mission marked the fourth full-fledged ISS crew NASA has launched abroad in a SpaceX vehicle since it began flying the U.S. space agency astronauts in 2020.<\/p>\n
SpaceX now has a fleet of four Crew Dragon vehicles: Endeavour, Resilience, Endurance and Freedom, but the company said it will not build any more Crew Dragon.<\/p>\n
According to Benji Reeds, SpaceX’s director of human spaceflight programs, the company is likely to support only up to six human spaceflights a year.<\/p>\n