The Dragon spacecraft carrying three American astronauts and one Japanese astronaut arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) Monday night (Nov. 16, 2020) EST and completed docking with the station.
The Falcon 9 rocket of SpaceX, the space exploration technology company carrying the Dragon spacecraft, lifted off at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Kennedy Space Center. President Trump and President-elect Biden both tweeted congratulations on the successful launch.
This is the first official U.S. manned space flight from the mainland since the last space shuttle liftoff in 2011.
In May, NASA successfully tested sending two astronauts to the International Space Station at the same launch site as SpaceX, paving the way for NASA to officially use the commercial company’s launch platform to send astronauts into space.
SpaceX is a rocket company founded by American high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Since the shuttle ceased operations in 2011, NASA has relied on Russian rockets to transport American astronauts working on the space station, at a cost of $90 million per astronaut per trip.
The four astronauts, who have just arrived at the International Space Station, participated in a welcoming ceremony for them early Tuesday morning, before attending a press conference with senior NASA officials on the ground. The astronauts are expected to stay on the ISS for six months.
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