After more than six months aboard the International Space Station, the Crew 2 astronauts splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida at 10:33 p.m. EST on Nov. 8, 2021. Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur of NASA were aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft with Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the European Space Agency’s Thomas Pesquet of France.
On Sept. 16, 2021, SpaceX launched its Inspiration4 mission with four civilian crewmembers. It was the company’s first fully private flight sending humans to orbit. It was an example of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center serving as a premier multi-user spaceport, supporting an ever-expanding commercial industry, providing transportation to space for both people and cargo.
The Space Shuttle era was one of superlatives. Everything was bigger than life. The factoids associated with the program are examples of the historic size, capabilities and achievements of the shuttle and the team that made their achievements possible.
The International Space Station has been in operation with research ongoing since Nov. 2, 2000. America’s first space station was Skylab. Launched 48 years ago, it was a complex orbiting scientific laboratory that helped pave the way for permanent operations in low-Earth orbit. It was a program of unparalleled scientific scope that continues to yield highly valuable information about the universe and life within it.
After 168 days in space, NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, along with Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, returned to Earth landing in pre-dawn darkness at 2:56 a.m. EDT on May 2, 2021 completing the Crew-1 mission. Liftoff atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took place Nov. 15, 2021, from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 streaked into the early morning sky from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center launching four astronauts to the International Space Station. The Crew-2 mission is the first to fly two astronauts from other nations as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket took place at 5:49 a.m. EDT April 23, 2021.
The SpaceX Crew-1 spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station on Nov. 16, 2020 with NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi. Their arrival continues two decades of work by astronauts from around the world living and working aboard the orbiting laboratory.
The skies over Florida’s Space Coast lit up as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocketed from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center sending four astronauts to the International Space Station. After they arrive, the orbiting laboratory will be staffed for the first time by seven astronauts and cosmonauts increasing the amount of time available for research and additional opportunities for discoveries.
The upcoming Crew 1 mission not only marks the first operational flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon, the four astronauts aboard will – for the first time — bring the International Space Station’s staffing from six to seven. Launch to the orbiting laboratory is set to take place at 7:49 p.m. EST on Nov. 14, 2020.
This is the second of a two-part series on the history of commercial flight. For years, aerospace corporations took the world to the skies. Now these companies and more are supporting efforts well beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. The Space Age began on Oct. 4, 1957, with the launch of the Sputnik satellite by the Soviet Union. An American satellite, Explorer 1, soon followed, with plans for sending humans into space in the near future.