NASA has confirmed the arrival of a crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station. “The Dragon spacecraft, which was carrying astronauts Kiel Lindgren, Robert Heinz and Jessica Watkins, in addition to the Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency, which was launched on Wednesday aboard a carrier rocket,” NASA said in a statement. “Falcon 9”, from Launch Complex No. 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in the state of “Florida”, USA, has successfully docked with the International Station following a flight that lasted regarding 16 hours. She explained that the new crew will replace the astronauts currently on board the space station, and they are three American and German astronauts from the European Space Agency.
She noted that during their time in the orbiting laboratory, the four astronauts will conduct more than 200 scientific experiments in areas such as materials science, health technologies, and plant sciences to prepare for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. The agency stated that “Dragon” and astronauts will return to Earth no later than next September. This is the fourth mission that NASA has launched to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX vehicle since the special rocket project founded by Elon Musk began flying with astronauts of the US Space Agency in 2020.
Dragon is the first commercial spacecraft to be successfully recovered from orbit. The vehicle can be launched with six tons of payload on board, as well as stay in orbit for up to two years, and can be reused up to ten times to travel to the International Space Station.
