A new spacecraft owned by SpaceX flew today on a NASA mission to the International Space Station after another spacecraft owned by Elon Musk loaded with merchants landed at sea off the coast of Florida.

The mission, called Crow 4, was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 03:52 local time (07:52 GMT) and included Americans such as Jill Lindgren, Bob Heinz and Jessica Watkins. In addition to Italian Samantha Cristoforetti from the European space agency.

This departure came less than 40 hours after the return of the other crew, which is an acceleration in the speed of flights in the context of SpaceX taking on the carrier role for NASA’s missions on the International Space Station. .

Between the termination of the American shuttle project in 2011 and 2020, Americans relied on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

The four astronauts that make up the Kro-4 mission will join another crew that will soon return to Earth after being on the station for five months. The return date for this group will be determined soon.

There are also three Russian cosmonauts at the station.

(AFP)

The new team will conduct and oversee hundreds of zero gravity scientific experiments, including on plants and on a project for an artificial retina for the human eye.

Jessica Watkins will be the fifth black woman to go into space and the first to join the International Space Station on a sustained flight.

He and his three colleagues are expected to arrive at the International Space Station approximately 17 hours after launch, and docking will take place tomorrow at 00:15 GMT.