- A rocket with four astronauts took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, this morning, the third crewed flight launched by SpaceX. The private company led by Elon Musk has now sent 10 people to space in under a year, surpassing the total number of astronauts put there by the Mercury program that began over 60 years ago. [Reuters / Steve Gorman]
- The flight was the first to make use of a previously flown rocket booster and aircraft. Both were refurbished, as part of SpaceX's endeavor to make space travel less costly. The Crew Dragon capsule, called Endeavor, was previously used in SpaceX’s first mission in May 2020. [CNN / Jackie Wattles]
- The rocket is headed for the International Space Station, where its four astronauts will join the seven currently there. The astronauts on this flight come from three different countries, making it the most diverse flight crew ever sent to space by NASA. [WSJ / Benjamin Katz]
- The new crew’s main task will be to test how cells react to various drugs and health conditions while in microgravity. And with so many scientists in the ISS right now, they'll get a lot of help in configuring their experiments in an environment like space. “When you get all those measurements from space, in the same time, same place, it’s really powerful for science,” said Annmarie Eldering, a NASA project scientist. [The Verge / Joey Roulette]
- Crew-1, a team of SpaceX astronauts who’ve been on the ISS for the past six months, will head back to Earth shortly. In the meantime, engineers at SpaceX will get to work building a $2.89 billion moon lander, the latest NASA-led effort set to send people back to the moon. [NASA]
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