NASA and SpaceX Launch Crew-4 to the ISS

Crew-4 Launches on Falcon 9 from LC-39A | Credit: NASA

On Wednesday, April 27 at 3:52am EDT (7:52 UTC), NASA and SpaceX launched the Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station with a Crew Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This mission is the 5th crewed mission of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Docking to the Harmony module is planned for 8:15pm EDT. The crew is:

- NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, commander, 2nd flight

- NASA astronaut Robert Hines, pilot, 1st flight

- NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, mission specialist 1, first flight

- ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, mission specialist 2, 2nd flight

The first stage for this mission, B1062, which previously flew on CRS-22, Crew-3, and Turksat 5B, landed on the "A Shortfall of Gravitas" drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. This is the first flight of Crew Dragon Freedom. This was the the 44th orbital launch attempt of 2022, 159th SpaceX mission, and the 151st Falcon 9 launch.