SpaceX set history, as Elon Musk’s space company launched the Crew-2 mission for NASA. This is the second operational commercial crew mission to the International Space Station for NASA, with a liftoff time of 5:49 AM EDT (2:49 AM PDT) on Friday morning.
The flight carried four astronauts, including two from NASA, one from JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and one from the ESA (European Space Agency), to the station, where they will begin a regular tour of duty conducting science experiments and maintaining and upgrading the orbital platform. NASA and SpaceX completed a series of reviews ahead of the mission. The launch marks SpaceX’s third crew launch in the past 12 months, and the first time it is launching both a reused rocket and a reused capsule. The astronauts from the U.S., Japan and France should reach the International Space Station early Saturday morning, following a 23-hour ride and they’ll spend six months at the orbiting lab. It was the first time SpaceX reused a capsule and rocket to launch astronauts for NASA, after years of proving the capability on station supply runs. The rocket was used last November on the company’s second astronaut flight.
