Current:Home > StocksNew crew for the space station launches with 4 astronauts from 4 countries-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
New crew for the space station launches with 4 astronauts from 4 countries
View Date:2024-12-23 21:00:57
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Four astronauts from four countries rocketed toward the International Space Station on Saturday.
They should reach the orbiting lab in their SpaceX capsule Sunday, replacing four astronauts living up there since March.
A NASA astronaut was joined on the predawn liftoff from Kennedy Space Center by fliers from Denmark, Japan and Russia.
It was the first U.S. launch where every spacecraft seat was occupied by a different country — until now, NASA had always included two or three of its own on its SpaceX taxi flights. A fluke in timing led to the assignments, officials said.
NASA’s Jasmin Moghbeli, a Marine pilot serving as commander, said her crew’s makeup demonstrates “what we can do when we work together in harmony.” With her on the six-month mission are the European Space Agency’s Andreas Mogensen, Japan’s Satoshi Furukawa and Russia’s Konstantin Borisov.
“To explore space, we need to do it together,” the European Space Agency’s director general, Josef Aschbacher, said minutes before liftoff. “Space is really global, and international cooperation is key.”
The astronauts’ paths to space couldn’t be more different.
Moghbeli’s parents fled Iran during the 1979 revolution. Born in Germany and raised on New York’s Long Island, she joined the Marines and flew attack helicopters in Afghanistan. The first-time space traveler hopes to show Iranian girls that they, too, can aim high. “Belief in yourself is something really powerful,” she said before the flight.
Mogensen worked on oil rigs off the West African coast after getting an engineering degree. He told people puzzled by his job choice that “in the future we would need drillers in space” like Bruce Willis’ character in the killer asteroid film “Armageddon.” He’s convinced the rig experience led to his selection as Denmark’s first astronaut.
Furukawa spent a decade as a surgeon before making Japan’s astronaut cut. Like Mogensen, he’s visited the station before.
Borisov, a space rookie, turned to engineering after studying business. He runs a freediving school in Moscow and judges the sport, in which divers shun oxygen tanks and hold their breath underwater.
One of the perks of an international crew, they noted, is the food. Among the delicacies soaring: Persian herbed stew, Danish chocolate and Japanese mackerel.
Liftoff was delayed a day because of extra data reviews for the capsule’s life-support system.
Another NASA astronaut will launch to the station from Kazakhstan in mid-September under a barter agreement, along with two Russians.
SpaceX has now launched eight crews for NASA. Boeing was hired at the same time nearly a decade ago, but has yet to fly astronauts. Its crew capsule is grounded until 2024 by parachute and other issues.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
veryGood! (22826)
Related
- Taking stock of bonds: Does the 60/40 rule still have a role in retirement savings?
- Final Four bold predictions: How the men's semifinals of March Madness will unfold
- RFK Jr. campaign disavows its email calling Jan. 6 defendants activists
- What to know about next week’s total solar eclipse in the US, Mexico and Canada
- More than 150 pronghorns hit, killed on Colorado roads as animals sought shelter from snow
- Nickelodeon 'Double Dare' host Marc Summers says 'Quiet on Set' producers blindsided him
- Final Four X-factors: One player from each team that could be March Madness hero
- As Florida Smalltooth Sawfish Spin and Whirl, a New Effort to Rescue Them Begins
- Will Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul end in KO? Boxers handle question differently
- Inmates all abuzz after first honey harvest as beekeepers in training
Ranking
- Georgia House Republicans stick with leadership team for the next two years
- Gray wolves hadn’t been seen in south Michigan since the 1900s. This winter, a local hunter shot one
- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott appears at Republican gala in NYC, faces criticism over migrant crisis
- What causes earthquakes? The science behind why seismic events like today's New Jersey shakeup happen
- Democrat Cleo Fields wins re-drawn Louisiana congressional district, flipping red seat blue
- Wild video of car trapped in building confuses the internet. It’s a 'Chicago Fire' scene.
- LeBron's son Bronny James will enter NBA Draft, NCAA transfer portal after year at USC
- Employers added 303,000 jobs in March, surging past economic forecasts
Recommendation
-
Oil Industry Asks Trump to Repeal Major Climate Policies
-
ESPN executive Norby Williamson – who Pat McAfee called out – done after nearly 40 years
-
St. Louis-area residents make plea for compensation for illnesses tied to nuclear contamination
-
Johnson & Johnson to buy Shockwave Medical in $13.1 billion deal to further combat heart disease
-
Disease could kill most of the ‘ohi‘a forests on Hawaii’s Big Island within 20 years
-
Former tribal leader in South Dakota convicted of defrauding tribe
-
Jordan Mailata: From rugby to earning $100-plus million in Eagles career with new contract
-
Former tribal leader in South Dakota convicted of defrauding tribe