A four-person international crew launches to the Space Station amidst technical difficulties and delays

On Sunday, four astronauts took out for the International Space Station, where during their six-month assignment, they will supervise the arrival of two new rocketships.

Alexander Grebenkin of Russia and NASA’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps were aboard SpaceX’s Falcon rocket as it took off from Kennedy Space Center.

Tuesday is when the astronauts should arrive to the orbiting lab. The crew from the United States, Denmark, Japan, and Russia who have been there since August will be replaced by them.

After three days of delay because to strong wind, space station commander Andreas Mogensen questioned via X, previously Twitter, “When are you getting here already?” According to SpaceX Launch Control, it is “fashionably late.”

On Sunday night, there was almost another postponement. Despite a last-minute rush of assessments due to a minor breach in the hatch seal, the SpaceX spacecraft was judged safe for the duration of the flight.

During the six-month tenure of the new crew, two rocketships that NASA had ordered arrive. Test pilots will board Boeing’s new Starliner capsule in late April. Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser, a miniature shuttle, is scheduled to arrive in a month or two. Not people yet, only freight to be delivered to the station.

Russia’s Alexander Grebenkin, NASA’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps (Photo | AP)
Originally, Epps was supposed to pilot Boeing’s Starliner, but the aircraft stopped due to technical issues. At last, NASA transferred her to SpaceX.

When she arrived to orbit, she said, “I am in a New York state of mind right now, it is amazing,” referencing the Billy Joel song.

Epps, a native of Syracuse, New York, is the second woman of color given to a long-term station assignment. Prior to takeoff, she expressed her pride in serving as an example for Black girls and showing them that spaceflight “is an option for them, that this is not just for other people.”

Before joining the CIA and Ford Motor Company as an engineer in 2009, she worked as an engineer. Epps was replaced in 2018 for reasons that were never made public, although he was supposed to fly on a Russian rocket to the space station.

Grebenkin, a former Russian military officer, and Dominick, a pilot in the Navy, are both new to space.

Barratt is the oldest full-time astronaut to travel in space; he is a doctor now serving his third mission. In April, he turns 65.

After entering orbit, Barratt said, “It’s kind of like a roller coaster ride with a bunch of really excited teenagers.” Regarding his age, he said before to takeoff that “we’re good to fly as long as we stay healthy, fit, and engaged.”

On the Russian side of the space station, flight controllers are keeping an eye on a developing leak in the cabin. Joel Montalbano, the NASA program manager, said that the region has been shut off and that the leak’s magnitude has increased over the last several weeks. He emphasized that neither crew safety nor station operations are affected.