SpaceX launches mission Crew-8, sending 4 astronauts on a journey to the ISS

On Sunday night, a SpaceX rocket departed from Florida carrying three U.S. astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut headed for the International Space Station (ISS) to embark on a six-month scientific mission in Earth’s orbit.

The Falcon 9 rocket, equipped with a Crew Dragon capsule named Endeavor, was launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral along Florida’s Atlantic coast at 10:53 p.m. EST (0353 GMT Monday).

A live NASA-SpaceX broadcast depicted the towering rocket ascending from the launch tower with its nine Merlin engines roaring amidst billowing clouds of vapor and a fiery glow illuminating the night sky.

After a 16-hour journey, the crew of four was slated to arrive at the space station early on Tuesday, docking with the orbital laboratory located approximately 250 miles (420 km) above Earth.

This mission, dubbed Crew 8, signifies the eighth long-duration ISS expedition involving NASA astronauts launched aboard a SpaceX vehicle since the private rocket company, founded by billionaire Elon Musk in 2002 and based near Los Angeles, commenced sending U.S. astronauts to orbit in May 2020.

Leading the team is mission commander Matthew Dominick, 42, a U.S. Navy test pilot embarking on his inaugural space voyage, accompanied by veteran NASA astronaut Michael Barratt, 64, a physician with two prior flights to the space station and two spacewalks under his belt, serving as mission pilot.

Completing the crew are fellow NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps, 53, an aerospace engineer and former CIA technical intelligence officer, and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, 41, a former military aircraft engineer. Both Epps and Grebenkin, like Dominick, are first-time space travelers.

Grebenkin is the latest cosmonaut to fly aboard a U.S. spacecraft under a ride-sharing agreement established in 2022 by NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, amidst heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Upon arrival at the space station, Crew 8 will be greeted by the seven current ISS occupants, comprising three Russians and the four astronauts from Crew 7, including two from NASA, one from Japan, and one from Denmark. Crew 7 is anticipated to depart the space station for a return flight to Earth roughly a week after Crew 8’s arrival.

Crew 8 is expected to remain aboard the space station until the end of August, conducting approximately 250 experiments collectively within the microgravity environment of the orbital platform.

The ISS, stretching roughly the length of a football field and recognized as the largest human-made object in space, has been continuously operated by a U.S.-Russian-led consortium, including Canada, Japan, and 11 European countries.

Launched 25 years ago, the outpost was conceived as a multinational initiative aimed at enhancing relations between Washington and Moscow following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the conclusion of Cold War tensions that catalyzed the original U.S.-Soviet space race in the 1950s and 1960s.

NASA has affirmed its commitment to sustaining the space station’s operation for at least six more years.