The first all-European commercial crew has launched safely from the Kennedy Space Center and is now on its way to the International Space Station.
The first all-European commercial crew has launched safely from the Kennedy Space Center and is now on its way to the International Space Station.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the four-person crew for Axiom Space’s Axiom-3 mission blasted off the launchpad at just before 4:50 p.m. ET (1:50 p.m. ET) on Thursday before climbing rapidly to orbit. Here’s some footage and images of the rocket heading to space:
About eight minutes after launch, the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage, on its fifth mission, made a perfect upright landing back at Kennedy, paving the way for a sixth flight in the coming weeks or months.
The launch was originally planned for Wednesday but earlier that day the mission operators decided to hold off for 24 hours to conduct more pre-launch checks.
