Photo: SpaceX
SpaceX successfully launched the Crew-4 mission on Wednesday morning, and the astronauts are currently on their way to the International Space Station.
The Crew-4 mission is currently on its way to the International Space Station via SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, after the launch took place using the Falcon 9 reusable booster.
@SpaceX announced that the Dragon spacecraft had separated from Falcon 9’s second stage at 2:06 a.m., after the Crew-4 mission launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida earlier that morning.
SpaceX is targeting docking at 8:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday evening, after the Dragon spacecraft performs a series of burns to slow down as it approaches the Space Station.
Photo: SpaceX
The Crew-4 mission launch was originally supposed to take place even earlier this month but was pushed back to give the crew more prelaunch processing time.
SpaceX also helped the Axiom crew land earlier this week, which was the first all-private mission to visit the Space Station.
Before that, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster nailed its 12th landing in a Starlink launch last week.
SpaceX also successfully launched the NROL-85 mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Check out the Crew-4 mission launch replay below (starts around the 3:52 mark):
SpaceX is now Brownville, Texas’ largest employer as of this week, with over 1,600 employed at the Brownsville Starbase facility.
