Tech Talk: VIDEO: NASA, SpaceX launch 4 more astronauts into orbit on flight to space station – Gulf Digital News

Tech Talk: VIDEO: NASA, SpaceX launch 4 more astronauts into orbit on flight to space station – Gulf Digital News

NASA and private rocket company SpaceX launched four astronauts into orbit late on Wednesday, sending a veteran spacewalker, two younger crewmates chosen for future lunar missions and a German materials scientist on their way to the International Space Station.

The SpaceX-built launch vehicle, consisting of a Crew Dragon capsule and a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket, blasted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at about 9 p.m. (0200 GMT Thursday), with a reddish fireball lighting up the night sky as its nine Merlin engines roared to life.

The liftoff of the Dragon spacecraft, named Endurance by the crew, was aired live from Cape Canaveral on NASA TV, punctuated by the sound of cheers and applause from mission controllers. Intermittent rain and clouds over the Cape earlier in the day had cast doubt on launch prospects, but the weather cleared by flight time, NASA said.

The mission had been confounded by a string of weather delays since its original launch window on Oct. 31. One postponement earlier this month was attributed to an astronaut’s unspecified medical issue, although NASA said the problem was later resolved.

Live video footage webcast by NASA showed the four crew members strapped into the pressurised cabin of their