SpaceX, the private company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, launched a rescue mission with two passengers today, leaving two seats empty to bring back American astronauts stranded for months on the International Space Station, NASA said. are

The Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It used a new launch pad, the first use of a pad for a crewed mission.

NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov are on board.

“Congratulations to @NASA and @SpaceX on a successful launch,” NASA chief Bill Nelson said in a post on X. “We live in an exciting era of star exploration and innovation.”

When they return from the space station in February, they will bring back two astronauts — Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams — who were stranded on the ISS because of problems with their Boeing-designed Starliner spacecraft. It lasted for months.

The newly developed Starliner was making its first crewed flight when it delivered Wilmore and Williams to the ISS in June.

The astronauts were only supposed to stay there for eight days, but after the Starliner’s propulsion system developed problems during the flight there, NASA had to consider a radical change in its plans.

(tag to translate)SpaceX



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