NASA astronauts arrive at the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX spacecraft | Science and health

To charge It took off on Friday (See the video below) For a 23 hour flight. The space station is about 400 km from Earth.

Astronauts were on board the spacecraft from NASA Shane Kimbro(53 years) expedition commander and pilot Megan MacArthur, 49 years old. A Japanese astronaut will also participate in the mission. Akihiko Hoshide, 52, and the French specialist Thomas Pesquet, 43, engineer at European Space Agency.

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The astronauts are expected to stay in space for six monthsPerform testing and maintenance of the plant before returning home. the team He was the first to go into space in a ship built from recycled materials from a previous launch.

The four were received on the station by 7 astronauts who were already there: three from NASA, one from the Japanese space agency, two Russian astronauts and an American astronaut who took part in the Soyuz flight.

Pilot MacArthur is the second person in her family to fly the SpaceX capsule: She is married to NASA astronaut Bob Behnken, who took part in the company’s demonstration flight with astronaut Doug Hurley last year.

The team is also the second launched by NASA since the United States resumed launches with astronauts from American soil last year. The first, it launched into space in November, You should be back on Earth at 28. The country has gone 9 years without launching manned aircraft.

This mission is the third partnership between the company and NASA. SpaceX was founded by Elon MuskThe billionaire, he is the CEO of the electric car maker Tesla.

Reusable auxiliary vehicles, designed to return to Earth and land safely once separated from the rest of the rocket, are a great innovation for SpaceX. The company plans to do this to make spaceflight more economical.

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