No passing of the baton in weightlessness. Three American astronauts and a German took to the skies on Wednesday evening for a six-month orbit mission to the International Space Station, a multiple-delayed take-off that was originally scheduled to take place ten days ago. They must replace the crew that has just left the ISS, which included the French Thomas Pesquet, returned to Earth overnight from Monday to Tuesday.
They were launched from Florida by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Wednesday evening at 9:03 p.m. local time. Their Dragon capsule must then dock at the station on Thursday at 7:10 p.m. Their takeoff was greeted by loud applause in SpaceX’s control room.
A departure several times delayed
NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Kayla Barron and Tom Marshburn, as well as European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Matthias Maurer, have been waiting in quarantine for days at the Kennedy Space Center. They were initially due to leave at the end of October but the takeoff was delayed several times, in particular because of the weather, then of a “minor health problem” with one of the astronauts – on which Nasa did not provide more information. details.
The space agency therefore decided to bring the crew of Crew-2, including Thomas Pesquet, back to Earth before launching Crew-3. The handover period between the two crews, which normally takes place in zero gravity for a few days, could not therefore take place.
The mission is called Crew-3 because it is the third operational to the ISS provided by SpaceX on behalf of NASA. But this is actually the fifth time that Elon Musk’s company has launched humans into orbit: before Crew-1 and Crew-2, a test mission (Demo-2) had sent two astronauts to the ISS. . And in September, SpaceX also launched four tourists for three days in space, independent of NASA.
Thomas Pesquet in great shape in Germany
For his part, the French astronaut Thomas Pesquet is “in great shape” after his return to Earth at the end of his second space mission, welcomed Thursday Philippe Baptiste, head of the National Center for Space Studies. (CNES) on BFM-Business.
“Thomas’ return went really well, he was in great shape,” said Philippe Baptiste, who was in Cologne (Germany) on Wednesday to welcome the astronaut whose mission ended with a successful landing off the coast of France. coasts of Florida and a direct return to Europe, where a long period of rehabilitation to terrestrial gravity awaits him.