The private company SpaceX sent four astronauts from the US agency NASA to the International Space Station on Thursday, including the first person from the Arab world to leave for an extended stay in space.
The Falcon rocket was launched this morning from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
On the Dragon spacecraft, which is due to arrive at the International Space Station on Friday, two American astronauts, one Russian and one from the United Arab Emirates.
About 80 spectators from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) attended the venue to the launch of the spacecraft, which carried astronaut Sultan al-Neyadi, the second person from the Emirates to travel into space, to a six month mission.
The spaceship’s crew includes the first Arab to leave for an extended stay in space.
In Dubai and elsewhere in the United Arab Emirates, schools and offices watched the launch live, which was covered by the media.
A technical problem had forced the American company SpaceX to cancel the launch of the rocket on February 27.
The mission was called off two minutes before the scheduled launch time, the company reporting that “there was no time to troubleshoot the engine ignition system.”
These astronauts will replace an American-Russian-Japanese crew that has been there since October.
Saudi Prince Sultan bin Salman was the first Arab to go into space aboard the shuttle Discovery in 1985.
Source: Observadora
