Florida, November 16: SpaceX on Sunday launched Crew Dragon "Resilience" to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX Crew Dragon "Resilience" launched four astronauts - Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi to the ISS. The spacecraft blasted off at 7:27 pm (0027 GMT Monday) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Out of the four astronauts, three are Americans, while Noguchi is Japanese. The mission marks the end of dependency on Russia's Soyuz rockets. US Vice President Mike Pence attended the event along with his wife. US President Donald Trump called the launch "great". Meanwhile, US President-elect Joe Biden also hailed the mission. SpaceX Crew-1 'Resilience' Carrying Four Astronauts is All Set For Launch on Sunday From Kennedy Space Center.
The capsule had achieved "nominal orbit insertion." The flight of Crew-1 of "Resilience" was postponed to Sunday due to bad weather. According to NASA, the Crew Dragon is scheduled to dock to the space station at about 11 pm on Monday.
The Crew Dragon, including the Falcon 9 rocket and associated ground systems, has thus become the first new, crew spacecraft to be NASA-certified for regular flights with astronauts since the space shuttle nearly 40 years ago. In May, SpaceX completed a demonstration mission for proving its capability of taking astronauts to the ISS and bringing them back safely.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 16, 2020 09:16 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).