Topline
SpaceX and NASA on Sunday successfully launched a crew of Russian and American astronauts towards the International Space Station (ISS) to begin a months-long mission in Earth orbit, the latest joint endeavor between Elon Musk’s rocket venture and the U.S. government agency as competition in the budding space industry heats up.
Key Facts
NASA and SpaceX said the four person crew had successfully reached Earth orbit in the company’s Dragon spacecraft to begin a six month science mission aboard the ISS.
Dragon was launched atop SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida Sunday night after multiple delays due to bad weather.
The mission, called Crew-8, marks SpaceX’s 13th mission carrying people and the 8th time NASA has employed the company to fly rotating crew from the orbiting station.
Onboard Dragon are three NASA astronauts—commander Matthew Dominick, pilot Michael Barratt and mission specialist Jeanette Epps—and one Russian cosmonaut from Roscosmos, flight engineer Alexander Grebenkin.
Apart from Barratt, who is making his third visit to the ISS, it is the crew’s first visit to the ISS and their first spaceflight mission, NASA said.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the crew will conduct more than 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations on the ISS to help prepare for human space exploration, including using stem cells to study degenerative diseases, studying the effects of microgravity and UV radiation on plants and testing whether pressure cuffs could help reduce health problems in astronauts.
Crucial Quote
“Congratulations to NASA and SpaceX on another successful launch to the International Space Station,” Nelson said. “On this eighth crew rotation mission, we are once again showing the strength of our commercial partnerships and American ingenuity that will propel us further in the cosmos.”
What To Watch For
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, named Endeavour, is set to dock autonomously with the ISS during the early hours of Tuesday morning, Eastern time. SpaceX said people can follow Dragon’s journey to the ISS using an interactive graphic on its website. Docking with the ISS is supposed to happen around 3 a.m. Tuesday, NASA said, and the agency will show live coverage from 1 a.m. on NASA+, YouTube, its website and other locations like the NASA app. The crew of the ISS usually perform a welcome ceremony once the latest rotation of crew is aboard, which NASA said it will also stream. There are seven crew currently onboard the ISS, four of whom will leave and “splash down off the coast of Florida” after a handover period.
Forbes Valuation
We estimate Musk is worth $210.5 billion. His fortune—stemming largely from companies he cofounded and runs like Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink—makes him the world’s second richest person, behind French luxury goods titan Bernard Arnault ($227.8 billion) and ahead of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ($199.1 billion).
Big Number
50. That’s how many people SpaceX have launched into space after its latest mission, the company said. In an image posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, SpaceX showed its latest four astronauts adding their names to a wall of signatures around logos for NASA and the company. It said the signatures were signed ahead of boarding and liftoff and were in the “White Room” at the end of the crew access arm to the spacecraft. SpaceX said its Dragon missions have carried more than 1,000 research experiments to orbit over the last 12 years.
