2023-05-22 01:22:55
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Crew Dragon was launched from Cape Canaveral with a crew of four to the International Space Station. The first stage of the rocket returned to Earth – for the first time in history to launch a ship with people. The crew includes astronauts from Saudi Arabia – the citizens of this country are sent into space for the first time in almost 40 years.
Falcon 9 launched at 17:37 on May 21, US East Coast time (00:37 Moscow time). The video was posted by SpaceX on Twitter. The commercial flight was organized by Axiom Space.
The crew commander is a veteran of space flights, ex-NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson. The crew includes racing driver and businessman John Schoffner, as well as Saudi astronauts Ali al-Qarni and Rayana Barnawi. In two weeks, they will conduct more than 20 scientific and technological experiments on the International Space Station.
Axiom Space in 2022 organized the first fully commercial mission to send people to the ISS. Then on board the ship were businessmen Larry Connor, Eitan Stibbe, Mark Paty and former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria.
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