SpaceX Brings Four Astronauts to the International Space Station

Space company SpaceX is transporting four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). The Crew Dragon Capsule with the space travellers has to depart from the American Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

 

The launch was actually scheduled for Thursday but was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. The astronauts are taken to space with the same launch vehicle that was used in the previous mission. Costs can be reduced considerably by reusing such equipment.

The arrival of the astronauts means that it is bustling on the ISS for the time being. The current crew will not return to Earth for a few days. As a result, there are eleven people on board for a short time. The ISS has never had more than thirteen space travellers at the same time.

The new team will stay on the ISS for about six months. They don’t have to get bored during that time. The astronauts will be engaged in about a hundred scientific experiments. Some 3,000 research projects have been carried out on board the barge station in the past 20 years.

Two of the astronauts, a duo from Japan and France, have also announced that they want to treat themselves to dishes from their home countries. Frenchman Thomas Pesquet promised his colleagues crepe suzette, a famous French dessert.

Space company SpaceX was also allowed to take astronauts to space last year. The Americans depended on their Russian colleagues for about nine years for that. They had shut down their own space shuttle program in 2011.