Catalog – Tech-Science – The International Spacecraft launches the first manned spacecraft

The Crew Dragon space capsule from billionaire space company Elon Musk has boarded three businessmen and a veteran astronaut on board. The Falcon 9 launch vehicle required to successfully launch the space capsule has returned to the floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean nine minutes after launch.

The Crew Dragon was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and will reach the International Space Station in about 22 hours.

The mission, called Ax-1, is a major milestone in commercial spaceflight: Civilians have visited the space station several times, but the latest Crew Dragon mission is the first time it has sent personnel solely to conduct research.

The astronauts, who each paid $55 million, were accompanied by Michael Nobbs Allegria, a former NASA astronaut who spent seven months on the International Space Station 15 years ago and has since been responsible for business development at Axiom Space. vice president. The crew also includes American businessman Larry Connor, who was trained as a mission pilot, former military pilot Eitan Step of Israel, and Canadian businessman of Hungarian descent, Mark Bathy.

Once they reach the space station and the Crew Dragon has successfully joined the International Space Station, the four-member team will spend ten days at the station, where they will engage in research into the brain, heart cells, cancer and aging. The space station will be joined by three American and German astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts. The Ax-1 team will present paella and other Spanish foods as a gift to astronauts on the International Space Station.

Friday’s mission is SpaceX’s second flight to take people into space. Elon Musk’s company previously carried billionaire Jeff Bezos and his guests into space on a three-day “orbit” flight. The Ax-1 mission team received hundreds of hours of training organized by NASA and SpaceX before the flight, far exceeding the previous mission.