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Agence France-Presse

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off on Thursday to the International Space Station carrying two Nasa astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and the second Emirati to voyage to space.
The SpaceX Dragon Crew-6 mission launched at 12.34am EST Thursday from Launch Complex 39A at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a live-stream of the launch showed.
The launch had been scrubbed on Monday just minutes before lift-off because of a clog in a filter that supplies ignition fluid to start the rocket engines.
The US space agency tweeted that the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour departed on Thursday “lighting up the skies as the crew heads to orbit”.
The Dragon crew capsule, dubbed Endeavour, is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 1.17am EST on Friday after a 24-hour voyage.
Nasa’s Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, Russia’s Andrey Fedyaev and Sultan al-Neyadi of the United Arab Emirates are to spend six months on the orbiting station.
Europe’s access to space in jeopardy after Vega-C rocket failure
Neyadi, 41, will be the fourth astronaut from an Arab country and the second from the oil-rich UAE to journey to space; his compatriot Hazzaa al-Mansoori flew an eight-day mission in 2019.
Neyadi, Hoburg, the Endeavour pilot, and Fedyaev, the Russian mission specialist, will all be making their first space flights.
Fedyaev is the second Russian cosmonaut to fly to the ISS aboard a SpaceX rocket. Nasa astronauts fly regularly to the station on Russian Soyuz craft.
Space has remained a rare venue of cooperation between Moscow and Washington since the Russian offensive in Ukraine placed them in sharp opposition.
Bowen, a veteran of three space shuttle missions, said politics rarely come up while in space.
“We’re all professionals. We keep focused on the mission itself,” he said. “It’s always been a great relationship we’ve had with cosmonauts once we get to space.”


While aboard the ISS, the Crew-6 members will conduct dozens of experiments including studying how materials burn in microgravity and researching heart, brain and cartilage functions.
The current crew is the sixth to be transported by a SpaceX rocket to the ISS. The Endeavour capsule has flown into space three times previously.
Nasa pays SpaceX to ferry astronauts to the ISS roughly every six months.
Russia launches rescue ship to ISS after leaks
The agency expects Crew-6 to have a handover of several days with the four members of Crew-5 who have been on the ISS since October. Crew-5 will then return to Earth.
Also aboard the ISS are cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Sergei Prokopyev and Nasa astronaut Frank Rubio.
They had been scheduled to return to Earth on March 28 but the cooling system of their Soyuz MS-22 capsule was damaged by a tiny meteoroid in December while docked with the ISS.

An uncrewed Russian Soyuz capsule, MS-23, was launched from Kazakhstan last month to bring them home. They are now scheduled to return in September.
Construction of the ISS began in 1998 at a time of increased US-Russia cooperation following the Cold War space race.
Russia has been using the ageing but reliable Soyuz capsules to ferry astronauts into space since the 1960s.
But in recent years, Russia’s space programme has been beset by a litany of problems that have led to the loss of satellites and vehicles.


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Space

SpaceX Dragon crew blasts off for International Space Station

The SpaceX launch vehicle consists of a Falcon 9 rocket topped with an autonomously operated Crew Dragon capsule called Endeavour. Photo: AFP

From left, Russian cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev, Nasa astronauts Warren Hoburg, Stephen Bowen, and United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan al-Neyadi. Photo: AP

Australian space telescope uncovers ‘mind-blowing monster’ galaxies near cosmic dawn

An images of huge galaxies, seen 500-800 million years after the Big Bang. Photo: Nasa via AP

Star Trek creator’s remains, hairs of ex-US presidents, JFK, Washington, Eisenhower, and Reagan heading to space

Celestis, a Texas-based company that specializes in space burials will launch a capsule with the hair of 4 former US presidents along with the cremated remains of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry into space. Photo: Shutterstock/Nasa/File

United Launch Alliance’s next-generation Vulcan rocket is unloaded after it arrived by ship in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Photo: Reuters

Russian spacecraft leaks coolant, International Space Station crew reported safe

The International Space Station (ISS). Photo: Roscosmos State Space Corporation via AP/File

China’s quantum radar eyes unexpected visitors from space

China says the ground radar being developed by a major defence contactor will mainly be used in its planetary defence system to detect asteroids and other objects headed Earth’s way. Image: Shutterstock Images

A prototype cooling device built by the project team for the quantum space radar. Photos: Zuo Tao, 38th research institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation 

News

World

United States & Canada

Mission marks the sixth long-term ISS team Nasa has flown aboard a SpaceX craft
Crew is expected to arrive at the ISS on Friday and stay there for around six months


A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off on Thursday to the International Space Station carrying two Nasa astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and the second Emirati to voyage to space.


SpaceX

International Space Station (ISS)

SpaceX Dragon crew blasts off for International Space Station

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Mission marks the sixth long-term ISS team Nasa has flown aboard a SpaceX craft Crew is expected to arrive at the ISS on Friday and stay there for around six months

Mission marks the sixth long-term ISS team Nasa has flown aboard a SpaceX craft

Crew is expected to arrive at the ISS on Friday and stay there for around six months