On Friday, February 13th, the two-stage Falcon 9 rocket from Musk’s SpaceX company launched from Florida into space. The purpose of the launch was to send four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on a microgravity science mission codenamed “Crew-12,” lasting eight months.
The four crew members consist of two NASA astronauts, one French astronaut, and one Russian astronaut.
The Falcon 9 rocket carried the Crew Dragon spacecraft known as “Freedom” and was launched around 5:15 a.m. Eastern Time from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station along the Florida Atlantic coast.
Live streams from NASA and SpaceX showed the 25-story rocket slowly rising from the launch pad, with its nine Merlin engines roaring to life, consuming 700,000 gallons of fuel per second, emitting billows of steam and a red fireball illuminating the predawn sky.
After a nine-minute flight, the Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage accelerated to over 17,000 miles per hour, subsequently inserting the Crew Dragon spacecraft into orbit. The reusable lower booster autonomously returned to Earth, making a safe landing on the landing platform at Cape Canaveral.
After approximately 34 hours of flight, the four astronauts and the spacecraft are expected to dock at the International Space Station at 3:15 p.m. ET on Saturday, February 14th. The ISS orbits about 250 miles above Earth, serving as a platform for various experiments in orbit.
Dubbed Crew-12, this mission marks the 12th long-duration stay at the ISS carried out by NASA using SpaceX rockets, ever since the billionaire Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 to transport American astronauts to orbit.
NASA has a contract with SpaceX for transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Due to crew assignment issues, NASA tried to expedite the Crew-12 mission launch. However, unfavorable weather conditions along the rocket’s flight path forced NASA to abandon two potential launch windows on Wednesday and Thursday.
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