SpaceX launched four people to the International Space Station from Florida on Wednesday, as Elon Musk’s company keeps up a steady pace of crewed missions.
Known as Crew-5, the mission for NASA will bring the group up to the ISS for a six-month stay in orbit. The mission is SpaceX’s fifth operational crew launch for NASA to date, and the company’s eighth human spaceflight in just over two years.
“That was a smooth ride uphill,” NASA astronaut and Crew-5 commander Nicole Mann said after the spacecraft reached orbit, adding that “you got three rookies that are pretty happy to be floating in space right now.”
Crew-5 got off the ground shortly after noon ET, beginning an estimated 29-hour journey to dock with the ISS. The mission brings the number of astronauts SpaceX has launched to 30, including both government and private missions, since its first crewed launch in May 2020.
Left to right: Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina, NASA astronaut Josh Cassada, NASA astronaut Nicole Mann, and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata arrive ahead of the launch of the SpaceX Crew-5 mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 5, 2022.
Jim Watson | Afp | Getty Images
SpaceX launched the astronauts in its Crew Dragon capsule called Endurance, on top of a Falcon 9 rocket. Both the rocket and capsule are reusable.
Endurance is flying to space for a second time – having flown the Crew-3 mission to and from the ISS in the past year.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon capsule stands on Pad-39A in preparation for a mission to carry four crew members to the International Space Station from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, October 4, 2022.
Joe Skipper | Reuters
