For the first time, SpaceX has taken four astronauts into orbit in an already used spacecraft

For the first time, the private space company SpaceX has taken an astronaut and three astronauts into orbit with the Crew Dragon capsule it had already used in an earlier launch. The four astronauts are now on their way to International Space StationTo which they will land in the early hours of Saturday, April 24.

3 .. 2 .. 1 .. and start! Endeavor takes off again. Four astronauts from three countries on Crew-2, now making their way to the Lonely State @ Space Station: pic.twitter.com/WDAl8g7bUK

NASA (@ NASA) April 23, 2021

On board the Dragon Crew are NASA’s Shane Kimbro, Megan MacArthur, Akihiko Hoshid from Japan, and Thomas Pesquet of France from the European Space Agency. The launch took place at 11:49 a.m. (Italian time) from Cape Canaveral, Florida: In addition to the Crew Dragon already in use in the previous launch, the missile that propelled the capsule into orbit, the Falcon 9, had already been used on other orbital launches.

“Glad to be back in space for all of us.” – Embed a Tweet. The second stage, and Embed a Tweet The Crew Dragon spacecraft has four astronauts in orbit, and on the way to @ Space Station. pic.twitter.com/ygzlgtVjWd

NASA (@ NASA) April 23, 2021

SpaceX, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, has over the years perfected the systems for using most of its rockets multiple times, in order to drastically reduce the costs of launching satellites into orbit and now for astronauts.

SpaceX It’s been around for a while Monopoly on travel to the International Space Station from US territory (other departures from Kazakhstan are made thanks to the Soyuz of the Russian Space Agency). In fact, NASA commissioned Boeing to produce a replacement system, but the company ran into several problems in its development and found a malfunction in its drone testing last year, such as making it impossible to dock its Starliner capsule to the International Space Station. Boeing is working on the issue, but it will take months before they can resume the approval process for their spacecraft.