SpaceX's Falcon rocket blasted off from Kennedy Space Center on Sunday carrying NASA's Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps and Russia's Alexander Grebenkin.Â
The astronauts should reach the orbiting lab on Tuesday.Â
More like Crew-L8 😅— Andreas Mogensen (@Astro_Andreas) When are you getting here already? https://t.co/LsDR3HwEEqMarch 3, 2024
They will replace a crew from the United States, Denmark, Japan and Russia who have been there since August.
"When are you getting here already?" space station commander Andreas Mogensen asked via social media platform X, after three days of delays due to high wind.Â
SpaceX Launch Control termed it "fashionably late".
There was almost another postponement on Sunday night when a small crack in the seal of the SpaceX capsule's hatch prompted a last-minute flurry of reviews before it was deemed safe for the whole mission.
The new crew's six-month stay includes the arrival of two rocket ships ordered by NASA.Â
Boeing's new Starliner capsule with test pilots is due in late April.Â
A month or two later, Sierra Space's Dream Chaser, a mini-shuttle, should arrive.Â
The astronauts aboard the rocket are expected to reach the International Space Station on Tuesday. (AP PHOTO)
The shuttle is for delivering cargo to the station, not passengers - yet.
Epps was originally assigned to fly Boeing's Starliner, which got bogged down with problems and stalled.Â
NASA finally switched her to SpaceX.
"I am in a New York state of mind right now," she said upon reaching orbit, referring to the Billy Joel song.
"It is amazing."
Epps, from Syracuse, New York, is the second Black woman assigned to a long station mission.Â
She said before the flight she was especially proud to be a role model for Black girls, demonstrating that spaceflight "is an option for them, that this is not just for other people".Â
SpaceX Launch Control called the Falcon 9 rocket's delayed take-off "fashionably late". (AP PHOTO)
An engineer, she worked for Ford Motor Co. and the CIA before becoming an astronaut in 2009, Epps should have launched to the space station on a Russian rocket in 2018 but was replaced for reasons never publicly disclosed.
Also new to space are Dominick, a Navy pilot, and Grebenkin, a former Russian military officer.
Barratt, a doctor on his third mission who turns 65 in April, is the oldest full-time astronaut to fly in space.Â
"It's kind of like a roller coaster ride with a bunch of really excited teenagers," Barratt said after reaching orbit.Â
As for his age, he said before the flight: "As long as we stay healthy and fit and engaged, we're good to fly."
Flight controllers are monitoring a growing cabin leak on Russia's side of the space station.Â
The leak has doubled in size in the past few weeks and the area has been sealed off, NASA program manager Joel Montalbano said.Â
He stressed there was no impact on station operations or crew safety.
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