“But still, it really was something and on board was a geologist. “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. “We sort of consider ourselves the Jessica team,” he said, chuckling. She invited the retired astronaut to the launch, along with his wife. 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.”Īlso cheering Watkins on was another geologist: Apollo 17′s Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon in 1972. 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.” While two Black women visited the space station during the shuttle era, neither moved in for a lengthy stay. At the same time, NASA and the European Space Agency have been pushing for more female astronauts. 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. Minutes later, their recycled booster had landed on an ocean platform and their capsule was safely orbiting Earth. Now let Falcon roar and Freedom ring,” radioed NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, the commander. “Our heartfelt thank you to every one of you that made this possible. 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. The private mission that concluded Monday encountered no major problems, they said, although high wind delayed the splashdown for a week. Three Russians also live at the space station.īoth SpaceX and NASA officials stressed they’re taking it one step at a time to ensure safety. 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.Ī week after the new crew arrives, the three Americans and German they’re replacing will return to Earth in their own SpaceX capsule. SpaceX has now launched five crews for NASA and two private trips in just under two years. After an express flight comparable to traveling from New York to Singapore, the crew will move in for a five-month stay. “Anyone who saw it realized what a beautiful launch it was,” Lueders told reporters. The astronauts arrived at the space station Wednesday night, just 16 hours after a predawn liftoff from Kennedy Space Center that thrilled spectators. “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. It’s the first NASA crew comprised equally of men and women, including the first Black woman making a long-term spaceflight, Jessica Watkins. (AP) - SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Wednesday, less than two days after completing a flight chartered by millionaires.
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