SpaceX rocket launched to the International Space Station

Takeoff view from Rockledge Beach 20 miles away. Photo: Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today via AP

«We may have four crew members on board from four different countries… but we are one team with a common mission,» Ms Mogbeli said after parting.

The launch has been pushed back to Saturday to give engineers extra time. Today we're going to take a look at the environmental control and life support system component of the Crew Dragon capsule, according to a NASA blog post.

This is the first space flight for both Mogbeli, and for Borisov.

«This is something I've wanted to do for as long as I can remember,» Mogbeli, a Navy test pilot, said during a media call last month.

«One of the things I'm most excited about is is to look back at our beautiful planet,” added the 40-year-old American.

“ Everyone I spoke to and who had already flown said that it was life changing, and floating in space seems very funny '.

Follow Dragon and Crew-7 as they fly → https://t.co/FrV7sLNxkR pic.twitter.com/9ri4LT4uzp

— SpaceX (@SpaceX), Aug 26, 2023

Crew-7 will be Elon Musk's seventh scheduled flight to SpaceX, with the first scheduled to take place in 2020.

NASA pays SpaceX for taxi services in as part of a commercial crew program it introduced to reduce reliance on Russian rockets to transport astronauts after the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.

Boeing is another private company that has been awarded the contract. partner, but its program continues to be mired in delays and technical difficulties. It has not yet had a single crew.

Borisov will be the third Russian to fly on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule mounted on a Falcon 9 rocket.

Space remains a rare area of ​​cooperation between the United States and Russia despite Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, while Americans also continue to fly Russian Soyuz rockets launched from Kazakhstan.

The team includes American Jasmine Mogbeli, Andreas Mogensen from Denmark, Satoshi Furukawa from Japan and Russian Konstantin Borisov Photo: GREGG NEWTON/AFP via Getty Images

The crew will spend six months aboard the ISS, where they will conduct scientific experiments, including collecting samples during spacewalks, to determine whether the station is emitting microorganisms through life support vents.

understand whether microorganisms can survive and reproduce in space.

Another experiment will aim to evaluate the physiological differences between sleep on Earth and in space.

«I'm looking forward to coping with all tasks. This is a very interesting profession: you are preparing for something that you have not tried yet, and you really want to do it well,” Borisov said.

The crew-7 will join the seven people already on board. The ISS before sending Crew-6 to Earth a few days later.