United States: NASA and SpaceX launched the first operational commercial crew mission with four astronauts on board to International Space Station from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Resilience rises. ? The Crew-1 mission has lifted off on a Falcon 9 rocket from @NASAKennedy at 7:27pm ET and is en route to the @Space_Station. #LaunchAmerica pic.twitter.com/5Q3uXSLvqt — NASA (@NASA) November 16, 2020 Early Monday, the nine engines of the private company's Falcon 9 rocket arced over the Atlantic Ocean. The four astronauts on this flight are Michael S Hopkins, Shannon Walker and Victor J Glover of NASA, and Soichi Noguchi, a Japanese astronaut. This launch, known as Crew-1, is a regularly scheduled trip to take four crew members for a six-month stay at the space station. This is the first of what NASA calls "operational" flights of the Crew Dragon. "I am extremely proud to say we are returning regular human spaceflight launches to American soil on an American rocket and spacecraft," NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine had said. "For the next 15 months, we will fly seven crew and cargo Dragon missions for NASA," SpaceX head of crewed flights Benji Reed said during a phone call on Tuesday, adding, "That means that (from December) starting with Crew-1, there will be a continuous presence of SpaceX Dragons in orbit." The next crewed mission is expected to blast off at the end of March 2021, carrying one European, one Japanese and two American crew members. (With Inputs from Agency)
