SpaceX launches its latest crew to ISS for NASA
Days after a SpaceX Dragon capsule crewed by wealthy adventurers splashed down off Florida's coast, another launched Wednesday, this time for a NASA mission to the International Space Station.
The Crew-4 mission blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 3:52 am (0752 GMT), carrying Americans Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins, as well as Italian Samantha Cristoforetti of the Eu Xi Focus: Invigorating China's space exploration dream
On April 24, 1970, a young man in a village in Northwest China's Shaanxi province was thrilled to get the news that China sent its first satellite Dongfanghong 1 into space.
That young man, Xi Jinping, later became Chinese President.
Still having his eyes on stars today, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Mil Scientists model landscape formation on Titan, revealing an Earth-like alien world
Saturn's moon Titan looks very much like Earth from space, with rivers, lakes, and seas filled by rain tumbling through a thick atmosphere. While these landscapes may look familiar, they are composed of materials that are undoubtedly different - liquid methane streams streak Titan's icy surface and nitrogen winds build hydrocarbon sand dunes.
The presence of these materials - whose mechani Watch live: Crew-4 docking to the International Space Station

Follow the live coverage as the SpaceX Crew Dragon docks on the International Space Station, marking the beginning of ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti’s Minerva mission.
Liftoff of Crew-4 to the International Space Station
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The Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule carrying ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert “Bob” Hines and Jessica Watkins to the International Space Station lifts off from Launchpad 39A.
Collectively known as Crew-4, the four astronauts were launched at 08:52 BST/09:52 CEST Wednesday 27 April from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida USA. Transit to the Station is expected to take under 24 hours.
Samantha is the third ESA astronaut to travel to the orbital outpost in a Crew Dragon. During the journey she and Jessica will serve as mission specialists. Kjell is Crew-4
China to build a lunar communications and navigation constellation

China plans to set up a constellation around the moon to provide communication and navigation services for future complex operations on the lunar surface.
Falcon 9 launches Crew-4 mission to space station

Four American and European astronauts are on their way to the International Space Station after their launch on a Crew Dragon spacecraft April 27, less than two days after another spacecraft returned from the station.
SpaceX launches 4 astronauts for NASA after private flight

SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Wednesday, less than two days after completing a flight chartered by millionaires.
It's the first NASA crew comprised equally of men and women, including the first Black woman making a long-term spaceflight, Jessica Watkins.
"This is one of the most diversified, I think, crews that we've had in a really, really long time," NASA's space operations mission chief Kathy Lueders said on the eve of launch.
ESA DG talks about the future of human space exploration
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ESAWebTV caught up with the DG while he was in Florida for the Crew-4 launch. Here’s what he had to say.
Government trying to streamline procurement of commercial space data

NGA is trying to match requirements with commercially available technology, said Frank Avila, commercial and business operations deputy director at the National Geospatial-intelligence Agency
The post Government trying to streamline procurement of commercial space data appeared first on SpaceNews.
