First “recycle” operation: SpaceX launches four astronauts into ISS

Friday 23 April 2021

“Recycling” application for the first time
SpaceX launches four astronauts

For the third time, NASA is using a space-X rocket to bring astronauts to the International Space Station. As for the capsule and the rocket, it is already the second manned aircraft in space – the first time the components have been successfully reused. A European is also on board.

Private space agency SpaceX has launched its third manned mission to the International Space Station (ISS) with four astronauts. The Crew Dragon spacecraft from the Kennedy Space Center in the state of Florida in the United States launched a Falcon 9 missile and reached Earth’s orbit a few minutes later. For the first time, there is a European, Frenchman Thomas Baskett and three astronauts. This is the third manned SpaceX mission since the resumption of human spaceflight in the United States.

The aircraft uses the same launcher and capsule used in the Crew 1 mission last May – the first such “recycling” operation. The reuse of the spacecraft is an important cost factor for NASA. According to plans, Crew Dragon will launch ISS after about 24 hours. Then Pesket, American astronauts Shane Kimbero and Megan McArthur and Japanese Akihiko Hoshaid arrive at the space station and board the ship.

A day before the launch, Basket posted photos of the spacecraft quartet on the beach on Twitter. He added the following comment: “Our friends at the space station are waiting for us. We do not want to be late. They even recently set up my bedroom and made my bed. Nice hosts like this!” An extra “bed” is needed because, with the arrival of the Crew 2 mission, the ISS will temporarily accommodate eleven astronauts. For a few days, participants, newcomers and three Russian astronauts will be aboard the previous Crew-1 mission.

The German astronaut will fly to ISS this year

This is SpaceX’s ISS. The first mission last May marked the end of a nine-year phase in which the United States launched Russian missiles at ISS. “For the third time it was always easy,” said NASA manager Daniel Forrestel. “I would never call spaceships ‘regular’, but ‘very familiar’ describes it well.” The first European French basket to fly in space with SpaceX. He was to remain in the ISS for six months, during his last month in space he would be commanding there – the third European after the German Alexander Gerst and the Belgian Frank de Vinnie.

For Pesket, this is the second voyage in space since November 2016 after a six-month stay at ISS. About a hundred scientific experiments await at ISS. Among other things, the so-called basket bubble is brought into space – a slim unicellular organism whose properties need to be explored in terms of weightlessness. At the end of Pesket’s stay, German astronaut Matthias Moore is also expected to board the space station for the first time.