Watch Space X launch its most diverse NASA crew yet to the International Space Station
SpaceX’s latest launch represented a couple of firsts for NASA.
The Wednesday morning launch by Elon Musk’s company from Kennedy Space Center at Florida’s Cape Canaveral featured the first NASA crew to be split equally among men and woman astronauts: two men and two women.
And, with astronaut Jessica Watkins on board, it was the first to include a Black woman on a long-term spaceflight — this one a five-month stay, according to The Associated Press.
The four astronauts are on a 16-hour flight on a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station and should arrive Wednesday night.
The predawn launch, captured in a video released by NASA, was punctuated by the sound of cheers from spectators. The response from the ground is audible after ignition around the 15-second mark and a boisterous response at the 2:50 mark when main engine cutoff (MECO) and stage separation occurred, successfully placing the four astronauts that much closer to the space station.
“Anyone who saw it realized what a beautiful launch it was,” NASA’s space operations mission chief Kathy Lueders told reporters, according to AP.
“It was crazy, it was a lot brighter and louder than I thought it was going to be. You could feel it, which I didn’t expect,” according to one spectator, Orlando resident Lauren Koontz, Click Orlando reported. “It was so cool, it’s something that everybody should come down and see.”
In addition to Watkins, the crew includes astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Samantha Cristoforetti.
