NASA’s Crew-7 mission has launched 4 astronauts into orbit

SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center this morning at 3:27AM ET, NASA introduced in the present day. The rocket pushed 4 astronauts on NASA’s Crew-7 mission into orbit earlier than a scheduled Sunday morning dock with the International Space Station (ISS).

The mission brings astronauts from 4 international locations to the ISS — Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA, the European Space Agency’s Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furakawa, and Konstantin Borisov, a Russian cosmonaut. When the Dragon spacecraft — named Endurance — autonomously docks with the ISS, it’s going to carry the station’s crew quantity as much as 11 for a couple of days till board the capsule and return to Earth in a couple of days.

“Aboard station,” says NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, “the crew will conduct greater than 200 science experiments and know-how demonstrations to organize for missions to the Moon, Mars, and past, all whereas benefitting humanity on Earth.”