NASA and SpaceX launch Crew-3 after Monday's Crew-2 Return

Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

NASA and SpaceX launched the third crew rotation mission of Dragon on Wednesday, November 10 at 9:03pm EST. Docking occured about 22 hours later at 6:32pm. This is the 5th crewed mission for Dragon over-all, after DM-2, Crew-1, Crew-2 and Inspiration4. The mission launched on a Falcon 9 from LC-39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This launch pad is a very historical pad. It launched many space shuttle missions, including the final one (STS-135) and multiple Apollo missions using the Saturn V. A new Dragon capsule, named Endurance, will be used for this mission. The crew is:

NASA Astronaut Raja Chari, Commander

NASA Astronaut Thomas Marshburn, Pilot

NASA Astronaut Kayla Barron, Mission Specialist 1

ESA Astronaut Matthias Maurer, Mission Specialist 2

Credit: NASA

Both Raja and Kayla are rookie astronauts. This will be the first time since the space shuttle, when a rookie astronaut is the commander of a spacecraft.

The launch was rescheduled multiple times, with the launch originally targeted for October 30. The causes of the delays were weather, a minor medical issue with one of the astronauts, and Crew-2 return.

This launch followed the return of Crew-2 on Monday, with Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur, Thomas Pesquet, and Aki Hoshide on board. There will be an investigation regarding a parachute that deployed late, but this did not affect Crew-3.