She is the first NASA crew of men and women alike, including the first black woman to make a long space flight, Jessica Watkins. “This is one of the most diverse crews I think we’ve had in a long time,” said Kathy Lunders, head of NASA’s space mission. The astronauts arrived at the space station on Wednesday night, just 16 hours after taking off from the Kennedy Space Center, which thrilled spectators. “Anyone who saw it realized how beautiful the launch was,” Lunders told reporters. After an express flight comparable to the trip from New York to Singapore, the crew will move for a five-month stay. SpaceX has now launched five crews for NASA and two private voyages in less than two years. Elon Musk’s company is going through some very busy weeks: It has just completed the transfer of three businessmen to and from the space station as the first private guests of NASA. NASA mission expert Jessica Watkins smiles as she talks to family members as she leaves the Operations and Checkout building for a trip to Launch Complex 39 at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Wednesday. (John Raoux / The Associated Press)
One week after the arrival of the new crew, the three American and German replacements will return to Earth with their own SpaceX capsule. Three Russians also live on the space station. Both SpaceX and NASA officials have said they are taking it one step at a time to ensure safety. The private mission, which ended Monday, did not face significant problems, they said, although strong winds delayed the collapse for a week. SpaceX Launch Control wished the astronauts good luck and Godspeed moments before the Falcon rocket was launched with the capsule, named Freedom from its crew. “We warmly thank each and every one of you for making this possible. Now let the Falcon roar and Freedom will strike,” NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, commander, said in a radio message. A few minutes later, their recycled amplifier had landed on an ocean platform and their capsule was in a safe orbit around the Earth.

Fully automated capsules

SpaceX capsules are fully automated – which opens the door to space for a wider clientele – and are designed to accommodate a wider range of body sizes. At the same time, NASA and the European Space Agency are pushing for more female astronauts. While two black women visited the space station during the bus season, neither moved for a long stay. Watkins, a geologist on NASA’s shortlist for a lunar landing mission in the coming years, sees her mission as “an important milestone, I think, for both the organization and the country.” NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti leave their crew to launch a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to embark on a six-month mission to the International Space Station at Cape Canaveral. (Steve Nessius / Reuters)
He appreciates the supportive family and mentors – including Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space in 1992 – that “I was finally able to live my dream.” Another geologist also praised Watkins: Apollo 17 Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon in 1972. He invited the retired astronaut to launch, along with his wife. “We consider ourselves Jessica’s team,” he said, laughing. “Those of us who drove Saturn V into space are a little tired of the smaller rockets,” Schmitt said after the SpaceX launch. “But still, it was really something and there was a geologist on board. I hope it will help her be a member of one of the Artemis crews that go to the moon.” Like Watkins, NASA astronaut and test pilot Bob Hines is making his first space flight. This is the second visit for Lindgren, a doctor, and the lone female astronaut of the European Space Agency, Samantha Cristoforetti, a former fighter pilot of the Italian Air Force. Cristoforetti turned 45 on Tuesday, “so she’s really celebrating and she’s very happy with a big smile on her face,” said Josef Aschbacher, director general of the European Space Agency. “He really is a role model and he does an incredibly great job doing just that.”

“It is not a holiday place”

The private flight just completed was NASA’s first dive into space tourism after years of opposition. The space agency said the three people who paid $ 55 million each to visit the space station combined while conducting experiments and training activities. They were accompanied by a former NASA astronaut working at Houston-based Axiom Space, who arranged the flight. “The International Space Station is not a vacation spot. It is not an amusement park. It is an international laboratory, and they fully understood and respected that purpose,” said NASA flight director Zeb Scoville. NASA also hired Boeing to transport astronauts after the buses were withdrawn. The company will take another chance next month to get an empty crew capsule to the space station after software and other problems triggered a 2019 test flight and prevented a recurrence last summer.