NASA and SpaceX sent four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule on Saturday after the first attempt was canceled the day before, AFP reported.

The Dragon capsule, carried by a Falcon 9 rocket, lifted off at 03:27 (07:27 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with the mission team, called Crew 7, on board in front of an estimated 10,000 people. .

The mission was led by the American Jasmine Mogbeli, whose members include the Dane Andreas Mogensen, the Japanese Satoshi Furukawa and the Russian Kostiantyn Borisov.

“We’re up,” NASA announced on X (formerly Twitter), and cheers could be heard from the control room as the capsule separated from the rocket.

“We may come from four different countries, but we form a single team with a common mission,” Jasmine Mogbeli said after the divorce.

The launch was originally scheduled for Friday, but was postponed to examine the Dragon capsule component.

For Kostyantyn Borisov and Jasmin Mogbeli, this is the first trip into space.

“What I’m looking forward to is looking down on our planet,” the Iranian-born MIT graduate said at a news conference last month. a cardinal perspective,” she added.

Spaceflight “is something I’ve wanted to do for as long as I’ve known myself,” said the US Navy test pilot.

Kostiantyn Borisov said that he is looking forward to “this adventure” after “very intensive training”.

The seventh mission performed by SpaceX

This is the seventh regular crew-change mission that SpaceX, billionaire Elon Musk’s company, has performed for NASA.

NASA pays SpaceX for the service, which has reduced its reliance on Russia to ferry crews to the International Space Station after the US space shuttle stopped flying in 2011.

NASA also contracted with Boeing to develop a second American shuttle to the ISS. But Boeing’s program has suffered countless delays, with the first manned test flight scheduled for March 2024.

Konstantin Borisov will be the third Russian to travel aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule equipped with the Falcon 9 rocket.

Despite heightened diplomatic tensions between Washington and Moscow since the start of the war in Ukraine, cooperation between the US and Russian space agencies on the ISS continues, one of the few areas of ongoing cooperation between the two countries.

After a journey lasting about a day, the crew will arrive at the International Space Station. He will spend about six months aboard this flying laboratory, where he will conduct several scientific experiments.

In particular, they will collect samples from the outside of the capsule to see if it releases microorganisms into space through its ventilation system, and if they can survive and reproduce in space.

A few days after the arrival of Crew-7, the crew of the Crew-6 mission will leave the station to return to Earth.

The station began to be built in 1998, and since 2001, an international team has been permanently living there.

It is expected to continue operating until at least 2030, after which it is scheduled to return to Earth and crash into the ocean. Several private companies are now working on commercial space station projects to replace it. (Agerpress)