NASA’s Crew-7 mission has launched four astronauts into orbit

SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center this morning at 3:27AM ET, NASA introduced as we speak. The rocket pushed four astronauts on NASA’s Crew-7 mission into orbit earlier than a scheduled Sunday morning dock with the International Space Station (ISS).

The mission brings astronauts from four international locations to the ISS — Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA, the European Space Agency’s Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furakawa, and Konstantin Borisov, a Russian cosmonaut. When the Dragon spacecraft — named Endurance — autonomously docks with the ISS, it should convey the station’s crew quantity as much as 11 for a couple of days till board the capsule and return to Earth in a couple of days.

“Aboard station,” says NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, “the crew will conduct more than 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations to prepare for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, all while benefitting humanity on Earth.”