They are expected to spend about six months aboard the orbiting research platform conducting science experiments and maintenance before returning to Earth. Pesquet held the camera up to one of the capsule's windows, giving viewers a glimpse of Madagascar from orbit. "The ride was really smooth, and we couldn't have asked for anything better," McArthur said. I think we're at the dawn of a new era of space exploration," the billionaire entrepreneur said at a briefing with NASA officials after watching the liftoff from launch control.įriday's Crew 2 team consists of two NASA astronauts - mission commander Shane Kimbrough, 53, and pilot Megan McArthur, 49 - along with Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, 52, and fellow mission specialist Thomas Pesquet, 43, a French engineer from the European Space Agency.Ī video camera mounted inside the crew capsule showed the four helmeted astronauts, dressed in white flight suits and black boots, seated side by side at the controls of the capsule early in their journey.Ībout two hours later, relaxing in their weightless environment, they hosted a brief tour of the cabin for NASA TV's audience. The first was an out-and-back test mission carrying just two astronauts into orbit last May, followed by SpaceX's maiden flight of a full-fledged four-member space station crew in November. It is also the third crewed flight launched into orbit in 11 months under NASA's fledgling public-private partnership with SpaceX, the rocket company founded in 2002 by Musk, who is also CEO of electric car maker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O). The mission marks the second "operational" space station team launched by NASA aboard a Crew Dragon capsule since human spaceflights resumed from American soil last year, following a nine-year hiatus at the end of the U.S.
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