The crew will set up and follow hundreds of weightless experiences, especially on plants as well as an artificial human retina project.
Le Monde with AFP
A SpaceX vessel, Elon Musk’s company, is due to take off early Wednesday, April 27, for a NASA mission for the International Space Station (ISS). If the favorable weather window is confirmed, the vessel of the mission called “Crew-4” must fly from the Kennedy space center, in Florida, at 3:52 am (9 h 52 in Paris) with the Americans Kjell Lindgren on board , Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins, as well as the Italian Samantha Cristoforetti, of the European space agency. The shot will be broadcast live on the NASA website.
SpaceX provides for this launch for less than forty hours after recovering another crew. The flight calendar has been accelerating since Elon Musk’s company has become the NASA taxi to the ISS.
The four astronauts of “Crew-4” will join up there another crew who sees his return to Earth approaching after a five-month mission, and whose return date will soon be known. The new crew will set up and follow hundreds of weightless experiences, especially on plants as well as an artificial human retina project.
Jessica Watkins will only be the fifth black woman to go to space, and the first to join the space station for a long mission. She and her three teammates should join the ISS approximately seventeen hours after takeoff, the stowage being planned at 2:15 am (Paris time), Thursday.