The Falcon 9 launch vehicle was launched aboard the Crew-8 Dragon manned spacecraft.
At 11:53 Beijing time on March 4, 2024 (22:53 EST on March 3), Space Exploration Technology Corporation (SpaceX) used the Falcon 9 launch vehicle to carry the CREW-8 "Dragon" manned spacecraft from the LC-39A station at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
From left: Grey Benkin, Bharat, Dominic, Ips.
The CREW-8 mission is SpaceX's eighth crew rotation mission for NASA, and the crew consists of four astronauts from the United States and Russia, including mission commander Matthew Dominick, pilot Michael Barratt, mission specialist Jeanette Epps, mission specialist Alexander Brown, and mission specialist Alexander Brown. Aleksandr Grebenkin, of whom Greben is a Russian cosmonaut and the rest are American cosmonauts. Greben was selected by Russia according to the Russian-American cross-flight plan to fly back and forth between heaven and earth on the CREW-8 "Dragon" spacecraft, working and living with Russian cosmonauts during his time in orbit. The crew-8 crew, with the exception of Balart, made its third flight, and the rest made its first flight.
CREW-8 Endeavour Dragon manned spacecraft.
The mission used the fifth flight of the Endeavour Dragon manned spacecraft, which has previously flown four manned missions, including Demo-2, Crew-2, Crew-6 and AX-1. Prior to the Crew-8 mission, the ground team had already refurbished the spacecraft, replacing parts such as nose cone covers, heat shields, parachutes, Draco escape engines, and retrofitting a tail cargo bay.
At the same time, the original "Falcon 9" uses a completely new first-class B10831. Adopt the return to the field**, about 7 minutes after launch, after 3 ignitions, the first stage returns to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Base SpaceX LZ-1 landing area.
At 16:00 Beijing time on March 5, the spacecraft will dock with the forward port of the "Harmony" node module of the International Space Station, and the entire uplink process will take about 28 hours. The hatch will open approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes after docking, and then the 70th astronauts of the 70th expedition team in orbit will connect with the crew family on the ground and the mission** to welcome the new ascending crew-8 crew. On this trip, the Crew-8 crew will take over from the Crew-7 crew to carry out space residency work, and it is planned to stay in orbit for six months before returning in the fall of this year.
This launch is the second manned launch mission and the third launch mission of the United States manned space flight in 2024, and the fifth launch mission and the first long-term manned launch mission of the world's manned space flight this year.
Author: Mulan Xingzhou.
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