The first fully European private commercial mission to the International Space Station (ISS) successfully lifted off this Thursday from the airport Kennedy Space Center NASA, in central Florida.
The Hispanic-American was in charge Michael López-Alegría. The Ax-3 mission, from the American company Axion Space, lifted off with four crew members on board at 4.49pm local time (9.49pm GMT) from Cape Canaveral.
Its goal will be to perform on the ISS more than thirty scientific experiments in microgravityamong others on stem cells or cancer.
This is the first time that the crew, which will remain in the orbital outpost for 14 days, is entirely European.
In addition to López-Alegría, the Italian Walter Villadei (pilot) and specialists Alper Gezeravci, the first Turk to travel into space, and Marcus Wandt, from Sweden, will participate in the mission.
The Ax-3 lifted off on schedule aboard an 8-meter-tall Dragon capsule, powered by a reusable two-stage 70-meter Falcon 9 rocket, both from the private commercial company SpaceX, from Elon Musk.
The Dragon capsule installed on the Falcon 9 rocket. Photo: EFEIt will be carried out by the crew of the commercial mission, sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA). scientific research related to life scienceshuman psychology and industrial technological advances.
Some results could be used to identify new therapies in the fight, for example, against cancer, at an early stage, when it is still curable.
This private commercial mission, Axiom Space’s third, will also help advance private development and use of the ISS into this new era and create a strong and sustainable market in low Earth orbit (LEO).
The Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon capsule, which will carry mission 3 (Ax-3). Photo: EFEThe mission was supposed to take off this Wednesday, but officials postponed the launch until today to complete the final review and analysis of data on the vehicle.
Source: EFE
Trending on Google
The International Space Station and NASA were trending on Google Trends.
The search graph on the topic in Google Trends.This is demonstrated by the graph. Although the research began on January 18th, the topic had its peak interest on the 15th.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.