As Women’s History Month continues, Astronaut Jeanette Epps made history yesterday as she launched into space with three crew members on a mission to the International Space Station.
After two scrubbed launches scheduled this weekend, the SpaceX crew took off Sunday to dock with the International Space Station. NASA contracts with SpaceX to ferry supplies and crew to the ISS; this is the ninth trip for the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the ISS; the spacecraft has made four other missions as well.
Up to now, the Crew Dragon was the only flight tested and certified spacecraft available to NASA. But in April, during Crew 8’s stay aboard the space station, the first piloted flight of a Boeing-built Starliner ferry ship is scheduled for launch to the ISS in a major milestone for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
A live NASA-SpaceX webcast showed the 25-story-tall rocketship ascending from the launch tower as its nine Merlin engines roared to life in billowing clouds of vapor and a reddish fireball that lit up the night sky. The rocket consumes 700,000 gallons of fuel per second during launch, according to SpaceX.
Reuters. and SpaceFlightNow