SpaceX launched NASA’s Crew-6 mission to orbit en route to the International Space Station, with a Russian cosmonaut and United Arab Emirates astronaut joining two NASA crewmates for the flight.
The SpaceX launch vehicle, consisting of a Falcon 9 rocket topped with an autonomously operated Crew Dragon capsule called Endeavour, lifted off at 12:34 a.m. EST (0534 GMT) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
About Crew-6 mission:
The mission is launching 2 US astronauts, one Russian Cosmonaut, and a UAE astronaut. This is Crew Dragon’s fourth flight.
Previous flights of Crew Dragon were as follows:
- Demo-2 Crew Test flight
- Crew-2 flight in 2021
- Private Axiom Mission-1
The landing site of the mission is the Atlantic Ocean. It is a part of the Commercial Crew Program of NASA. The program provides crew transportation services, that is, carrying cargo and astronauts from and to ISS.
Significance of Crew Dragon :
It is a reusable spacecraft. It supplies cargo to the International Space Station. Earlier, the crew dragon was called the Dragon rider.
Need of Crew-6 Launch:
The Crew-6 launch comes after Russia is preparing to send Soyuz MS-23 to replace Soyuz MS-22. Due to a coolant leak in Soyuz MS-22, the astronauts were stranded in space.
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