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• Elon Musk’s company has sent 26 astronauts into space in two years
Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched a crew of four astronauts into orbit as part of a NASA mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
The Crew-4 mission, is SpaceX’s seventh human spaceflight to date and fourth operational crew launch for NASA. The crew reached the orbit after launching from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 3:52 AM ET, wrote NASA in its press statement.
The crew was onboard a Dragon spacecraft propelled by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The diverse crew comprised of Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins, all NASA astronauts, and Samantha Cristoforetti of European Space Agency (ESA).
The crew will conduct a science expedition in microgravity aboard the space station.
Musk’s company launched Crew-4 less than 39 hours after returning the private astronaut crew of Axiom’s Ax-1, which splashed down in the Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour on Monday.
A CNBC report mentioned that launches by SpaceX were cost-effective for NASA. NASA expects to pay $55 million per astronaut to fly with Crew Dragon, as opposed to $86 million per astronaut to fly with the Russians.
The US space agency estimated in 2020 that having two private companies compete for contracts saved the agency $20 billion to $30 billion in development costs.
SpaceX has sent a total of 26 astronauts into space in the past two years.
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Source NASA and CNBC