March 2010 April 2010 May 2010 June 2010 July 2010
August 2010
September 2010 October 2010
November 2010
December 2010
January 2011
February 2011 March 2011 April 2011 May 2011 June 2011 July 2011 August 2011 September 2011 October 2011 November 2011 December 2011 January 2012 February 2012 March 2012 April 2012 May 2012 June 2012 July 2012 August 2012 September 2012 October 2012 November 2012 December 2012 January 2013 February 2013 March 2013 April 2013 May 2013 June 2013 July 2013 August 2013 September 2013 October 2013 November 2013 December 2013 January 2014 February 2014 March 2014 April 2014 May 2014 June 2014 July 2014 August 2014 September 2014 October 2014 November 2014 December 2014 January 2015 February 2015 March 2015 April 2015 May 2015 June 2015 July 2015 August 2015 September 2015 October 2015 November 2015 December 2015 January 2016 February 2016 March 2016 April 2016 May 2016 June 2016 July 2016 August 2016 September 2016 October 2016 November 2016 December 2016 January 2017 February 2017 March 2017 April 2017 May 2017 June 2017 July 2017 August 2017 September 2017 October 2017 November 2017 December 2017 January 2018 February 2018 March 2018 April 2018 May 2018 June 2018 July 2018 August 2018 September 2018 October 2018 November 2018 December 2018 January 2019 February 2019 March 2019 April 2019 May 2019 June 2019 July 2019 August 2019 September 2019 October 2019 November 2019 December 2019 January 2020 February 2020 March 2020 April 2020 May 2020 June 2020 July 2020 August 2020 September 2020 October 2020 November 2020 December 2020 January 2021 February 2021 March 2021 April 2021 May 2021 June 2021 July 2021 August 2021 September 2021 October 2021 November 2021 December 2021 January 2022 February 2022 March 2022 April 2022 May 2022 June 2022 July 2022 August 2022 September 2022 October 2022 November 2022 December 2022 January 2023 February 2023 March 2023 April 2023 May 2023 June 2023 July 2023 August 2023 September 2023 October 2023 November 2023 December 2023 January 2024 February 2024 March 2024 April 2024
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26
27
28
29
30
News Every Day |

SpaceX launches 4 astronauts, including UCLA grad Jessica Watkins, 1st Black woman making long-term spaceflight

SpaceX launches 4 astronauts, including UCLA grad Jessica Watkins, 1st Black woman making long-term spaceflight

By MARCIA DUNN | AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Hawthorne-based SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Wednesday, less than two days after completing a flight chartered by millionaires.

It’s the first NASA crew comprised equally of men and women, including the first Black woman making a long-term spaceflight, UCLA graduate and JPL veteran Jessica Watkins.

“This is one of the most diversified, I think, crews that we’ve had in a really, really long time,” said NASA’s space operations mission chief Kathy Lueders.

The astronauts were due to arrive at the space station Wednesday night, 16 hours after a predawn liftoff from Kennedy Space Center that thrilled spectators.

  • In a slow camera exposure, SpaceX Falcon rocket launches Wednesday, April 27, from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center to the ISS. NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins were joined by European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. Time exposure of launch from Kelly Park on Merritt Island. (Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today via AP)

  • A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 39-A Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts will fly on SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

  • A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 39-A Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts will fly on SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

  • Photographers record a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as it lifts off in this time exposure from Launch Complex 39-A Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts will fly on SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

  • A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, April 27, 2022. NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on the Crew Dragon spacecraft begin a six-month expedition on the International Space Station. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

  • A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, April 27, 2022. NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on the Crew Dragon spacecraft begin a six-month expedition on the International Space Station. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

  • A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, April 27, 2022. NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on the Crew Dragon spacecraft begin a six-month expedition on the International Space Station. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

  • A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, April 27, 2022. NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on the Crew Dragon spacecraft begin a six-month expedition on the International Space Station. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

  • NASA Mission specialist Jessica Watkins, a UCLA graduate and JPL veteran, smiles as she talks to family members after leaving the Operations and Checkout building for a trip to Launch Complex 39-A Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts will fly on SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

  • NASA astronaut Robert Hines waves to family and friends as he and crew mates depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Launch Complex 39A to board the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-4 mission launch, Tuesday, April 26, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Aubrey Gemignani, NASA via AP)

  • NASA astronaut Robert Hines gestures to family and friends as he and crew mates depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Launch Complex 39A to board the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-4 mission launch, Tuesday, April 26, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Aubrey Gemignani, NASA via AP)

  • The SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts, from left, mission specialist Jessica Watkins, pilot Bob Hines, commander Kjell Lindgren, and mission specialist, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, of Italy, get together after leaving the Operations and Checkout Building for a trip to Launch Complex 39-A Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The four astronauts will fly on SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

  • SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts, from left, pilot Bob Hines, mission specialist Jessica Watkins, commander Kjell Lindgren, and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, of Italy, wave as they leave the Operations and Checkout Building for a trip to Launch Complex 39-A Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The four astronauts will fly to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

  • NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren waves as he leaves the Operations and Checkout Building for a trip to Launch Complex 39-A Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts will fly on SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

  • NASA astronaut Bob Hines makes a hand gesture to family members after leaving the Operations and Checkout building and a trip to Launch Complex 39-A Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts will fly on SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

  • European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, of Italy, waves as she leaves the Operations and Checkout Building Wednesday, April 27, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts will fly on SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

  • A SpaceX Falcon rocket sits on Launch Complex 39A Tuesday, April 26, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts are scheduled to fly on SpaceX’s mission to the International Space Station Wednesday morning. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

  • A SpaceX Falcon rocket sits on Launch Complex 39A Tuesday, April 26, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts are scheduled to fly on SpaceX’s mission to the International Space Station Wednesday morning. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

  • A SpaceX Falcon rocket sits on Launch Complex 39A Tuesday, April 26, 2022, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Four astronauts are scheduled fly on SpaceX’s mission to the International Space Station. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

of

Expand

“Anyone who saw it realized what a beautiful launch it was,” Lueders told reporters. After an express flight comparable to traveling from New York to Singapore, the crew will move in for a five-month stay.

SpaceX has now launched five crews for NASA and two private trips in just under two years. Elon Musk’s company is having an especially busy few weeks: It just finished taking three businessmen to and from the space station as NASA’s first private guests.

A week after the new crew arrives, the three Americans and German they’re replacing will return to Earth in their own SpaceX capsule. Three Russians also live at the space station.

Both SpaceX and NASA officials stressed they’re taking it one step at a time to ensure safety. The private mission that concluded Monday encountered no major problems, they said, although high wind delayed the splashdown for a week.

SpaceX Launch Control wished the astronauts good luck and Godspeed moments before the Falcon rocket blasted off with the capsule, named Freedom by its crew.

RELATED STORY: UCLA grad/JPL veteran set to become 1st black woman on Space Station crew

“Our heartfelt thank you to every one of you that made this possible. Now let Falcon roar and Freedom ring,” radioed NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, the commander. Minutes later, their recycled booster had landed on an ocean platform and their capsule was safely orbiting Earth. “It was a great ride,” he said.

The SpaceX capsules are fully automated — which opens the space gates to a broader clientele — and they’re designed to accommodate a wider range of body sizes. At the same time, NASA and the European Space Agency have been pushing for more female astronauts.

While two Black women visited the space station during the shuttle era, neither moved in for a lengthy stay. Watkins, a geologist who is on NASA’s short list for a moon-landing mission in the years ahead, sees her mission as “an important milestone, I think, both for the agency and for the country.”

She credits supportive family and mentors — including Mae Jemison, the first Black woman in space in 1992 — for “ultimately being able to live my dream.”

Also cheering Watkins on was another geologist: Apollo 17’s Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon in 1972. She invited the retired astronaut to the launch, along with his wife. “We sort of consider ourselves the Jessica team,” he said, chuckling.

“Those of us who rode the Saturn V into space are a little bit jaded about the smaller rockets,” Schmitt said after the SpaceX liftoff. “But still, it really was something — and on board was a geologist … I hope it will stand her in good stead for being part of one of the Artemis crews that go to the moon.”

Like Watkins, NASA astronaut and test pilot Bob Hines is making his first spaceflight. It’s the second visit for Lindgren, a physician, and the European Space Agency’s lone female astronaut, Samantha Cristoforetti, a former Italian Air Force fighter pilot.

Cristoforetti turned 45 on Tuesday, “so she really celebrates and is very happy with a big smile in the capsule,” said the European Space Agency’s director general, Josef Aschbacher. “She’s really a role model and she’s doing an enormously fabulous job on doing exactly that.”

The just-completed private flight was NASA’s first dip into space tourism after years of opposition. The space agency said the three people who paid $55 million each to visit the space station blended in while doing experiments and educational outreach. They were accompanied by a former NASA astronaut employed by Houston-based Axiom Space, which arranged the flight.

“The International Space Station is not a vacation spot. It’s not an amusement park. It is an international laboratory, and they absolutely understood and respected that purpose,” said NASA flight director Zeb Scoville.

NASA also hired Boeing to ferry astronauts after retiring the shuttles. The company will take another shot next month at getting an empty crew capsule to the space station, after software and other problems fouled a 2019 test flight and prevented a redo last summer.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Москва

Сотрудник ОМОН «Крепость» стал бронзовым призером на соревнованиях Центрального округа Росгвардии по боксу

India unveils Gukesh as its youngest challenger in chess history

Ramon Cardenas aims to cement his contender status agains Jesus Ramirez Rubio tonight

Laura Dern Is the Star of Roger Vivier’s New Short Movie

Paige Spiranac puts on busty display in plunging top as she lists the ‘things that drive me crazy’

Ria.city






Read also

Universal Music’s Copyright Claim: 99 Problems And Fair Use Ain’t One

Arrests begin at USC after University of Texas students detained in Gaza war protests

Sensory Activities for Toddlers | Over 40 Ideas to Try!

News, articles, comments, with a minute-by-minute update, now on Today24.pro

News Every Day

Ramon Cardenas aims to cement his contender status agains Jesus Ramirez Rubio tonight

Today24.pro — latest news 24/7. You can add your news instantly now — here


News Every Day

Laura Dern Is the Star of Roger Vivier’s New Short Movie



Sports today


Новости тенниса
Новак Джокович

Легенда тенниса рассказал, готов ли он опять стать тренером Джоковича



Спорт в России и мире
Москва

RU.TV превращает Русскую Музыкальную Премию в Мюзикл



All sports news today





Sports in Russia today

Москва

RU.TV превращает Русскую Музыкальную Премию в Мюзикл


Новости России

Game News

Шапки женские вязаные на Wildberries, 2024 — новый цвет от 392 руб. (модель 466)


Russian.city


Новости 24 часа

Шапки женские вязаные на Wildberries, 2024 — новый цвет от 392 руб. (модель 466)


Губернаторы России
ММА

Популярный блогер и боец ММА Саша Стоун выступит на фестивале спорта и контента Yappy x «Наше Дело Россия» в Нижнем Новгороде


Шапки женские вязаные на Wildberries, 2024 — новый цвет от 392 руб. (модель 466)

В МИД России назвали условие для удара по территории Польши

Рабочий сорвался с высоты и погиб на стройке на северо-западе Москвы

Губернатор Хоценко: в Омске на производстве вспыхнул пожар


Предложения АИРР поддержала комиссия Госсовета

Киркоров и Пелагея спели для амурчан-бамовцев в Москве

«Посмотрите на этих губастых. Катастрофа!»: Александр Розенбаум против пластики в угоду моде

Певца Николая Баскова заметили на публике с обручальным кольцом по цене квартиры в Москве


Легенда тенниса рассказал, готов ли он опять стать тренером Джоковича

Вторая ракетка Казахстана опустилась в чемпионской гонке WTA

Новак Джокович в пятый раз получил спортивный «Оскар» как атлет года

П’ять українок отримали суперниць в основі турніру WTA 1000 в Мадриді: результат жеребкування



Подключение системы отопления в Московской области

Шапки женские вязаные на Wildberries, 2024 — новый цвет от 392 руб. (модель 466)

Путешествовать по России в майские праздники будут 2,8 миллиона туристов

Шапки женские на Wildberries — скидки от 398 руб. (на новые оттенки)


Олимпиада по финансовой грамотности МГУ проходит при поддержке СберСтрахования жизни

В Музее Победы состоялась премьера фильма «Маршал Аганов». Судьбу инженера Победы экранизировали. Фото. Видео

Дистрибьюция Музыки. Дистрибьюция Музыки в России. Дистрибьюция музыки в вк. Яндекс музыка дистрибьюция. Цифровая дистрибьюция музыка. Дистрибьюция музыки под ключ.

Шапки женские вязаные на Wildberries, 2024 — новый цвет от 392 руб. (модель 466)


В Подмосковье начали курсировать новые автобусы Yutong

Преподаватели столичных колледжей изучат эффективные технологии ИИ

Всероссийская акция «Тотальный диктант» прошла в Лобне

Мужчины стали в 2 раза активнее пользоваться маркетплейсами



Путин в России и мире






Персональные новости Russian.city
Коммерсантъ

ДЭГ местного значения // Суд оставил в силе итоги электронного голосования на выборах президента



News Every Day

India unveils Gukesh as its youngest challenger in chess history




Friends of Today24

Музыкальные новости

Персональные новости