The Crew Dragon fliers are replacing four other station crew members who are wrapping up a six-month stay.
Running a day late, a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying a NASA commander, a Danish co-pilot, a Japanese surgeon-astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut rocketed into orbit early Saturday and set off after the International Space Station for a six-month tour of duty.and European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen monitoring cockpit displays, the crew's Falcon 9 rocket roared to life at 3:27 a.m. EDT and majestically climbed away from historic pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.
The second stage engine shut down as planned nine minutes after launch and three minutes after that, the Crew Dragon spacecraft was released to fly on its own. A toy sloth floats about the Crew Dragon capsule, a zero gravity indicator chosen by Mogensen's family. Such toys are a tradition on Crew Dragon flights.If all goes well, Moghbeli, Mogensen, Japanese astronaut-surgeon Satoshi Furukawa and Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov will catch up with the space station early Sunday, matching the lab's 260-mile-high altitude and 17,000 mph velocity.
Another problem cropped up during the final stages of the countdown Saturday: A sensor reading indicating a possible nitrogen tetroxide propellant leak in the Crew Dragon's propulsion system. Known as NTO, nitrogen tetroxide is an extremely toxic chemical, but with just minutes to spare, SpaceX engineers concluded the leak was so small is posed no threat to the crew or the six-month mission.
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