Space shuttle launch how long

The day after a sky-lighting Florida launch, four astronauts aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule chased down the International Space Station Thursday and glided in for a problem-free docking, kicking off a half-year stay aboard the orbital outpost. Raja Chari, a veteran U. Air Force test pilot and combat veteran awaiting launch on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, is the first rookie astronaut to command a NASA space mission since the final crew blasted off to the Skylab space station in Two NASA astronauts and mission specialists from Japan and France closed out a day flight Monday on a SpaceX crew capsule, departing the International Space Station and riding their Dragon spacecraft through a scorching re-entry and splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

Four astronauts closing out an expedition of nearly days in orbit floated into their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule at the International Space Station Monday, a couple of hours before the ship was scheduled to undock and fly a degree loop around the complex on the way back to Earth.

The capsule undocked from the station at p. The payload fairing on the most recent Ariane 5 launch last month worked perfectly, according to the European Space Agency, helping clear concerns about the shroud before liftoff of the James Webb Space Telescope on the next Ariane 5 flight in December.

Faced with high winds in the Gulf of Mexico, NASA managers decided to pass up a Sunday undocking and Monday morning splashdown for four returning space station astronauts, opting instead to aim for a landing Monday night when better weather is expected. Hope you enjoyed the ride. Dragon will take you from here. Safe travels.

The three American astronauts and their European Space Agency crewmate were due to arrive at the space station, orbiting some miles km above the Earth, on Thursday evening following a flight of about 22 hours. The flight marks the third "operational" space station crew sent to orbit aboard a Dragon capsule since NASA and SpaceX teamed up to resume space launches from American soil last year, following a nine-year hiatus at the end of the U.

Air Force combat jet and test pilot serving as mission commander, and mission specialist Kayla Barron, 34, a U. Navy submarine officer and nuclear engineer. November 10, The team's designated pilot and second-in-command is veteran astronaut Tom Marshburn, 61, a medical doctor and former NASA flight surgeon who has logged two previous spaceflights to the space station and four spacewalks. Chari, Maurer and Barron were all making their debut spaceflights with Wednesday's launch, becoming the th, th and st humans in space.

Both Chari and Barron also are among the first group of 18 astronauts selected for NASA's upcoming Artemis missions, aimed at returning humans to the moon later this decade, over a half century after the Apollo lunar program ended. NASA has extolled space station missions in low-Earth orbit as critical training grounds and incubators for technologies that will help achieve the goals of a sustainable lunar presence and eventual human flights to Mars. With the Crew Dragon flying autonomously through space at more than 17, miles per hour 27, kmph , the four astronauts were expected to have a meal and get some sleep before arriving at the space station to begin a six-month science mission aboard the orbiting laboratory.