SpaceX launched its first full taxi mission for NASA on Sunday evening, sending four astronauts into space to the International Space Station.
The Dragon capsule lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying three Americans and one Japanese. It was the second crewed flight for NASA by a private company.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk had to watch the launch remotely because he had tested positive for coronavirus.
The diverse crew consists of three men and one woman: Commander Mike Hopkins, an Air Force colonel; Shannon Walker, a physicist; Navy Cmdr. Victor Glover, the first Black astronaut on a long-term space station mission; and Soichi Noguchi, who has launched on three types of spacecraft.
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Language Notes
• launch, v. To spring forward or upward; to take off. Transitive and intransitive. Launch is used for rockets and spaceships, and also for boats and ships. Similarly, launch is used for businesses and programs. Also common: take off; lift off.
→ SpaceX has launched another spaceship.
→ We are going to launch a new company.
• launch, n. An instance of taking off.
→ The rocket's launch was successful.
→ Our company will begin with a soft launch.
• capsule, n. The part of a spaceship that carries people.
→ The Apollo missions had capsules that carried three astronauts.
• crew, n. The team aboard a ship or spaceship.
→ The Dragon capsule is carrying a three-member crew.
• crew, v. To serve as a crew member; to add crew members. This term is often used as a past participle adjective, as in "crewed mission," as a replacement for the original "manned mission."
→ This was SpaceX's second crewed launched.
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