United States: Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket company for NASA, has sent four astronauts to the International Space Station. This crew include the first person from the Arab world to go for an extended monthslong stay.

Shortly after midnight on 2nd March 2023, the Falcon rocket launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, lighting up the night sky as it travelled up the East Coast. The trip to the International Space Station (ISS), a laboratory orbiting some 420KM (250 miles) above Earth, was expected to take nearly 25 hours, with rendezvous planned for about 06:15 GMT on 3rd March 2023, as per the report.

Liftoff of Crew-6! pic.twitter.com/BucEYeIIFe

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 2, 2023

As astronaut Mr. Sultan al-Neyadi, the second Emirati to travel to space blasted out on his six-month mission, close to 80 United Arab Emirates spectators watched from the launch site. Schools and workplaces in Dubai and other parts of the UAE intended to broadcast the event live halfway across the world.

NASA’s Mr. Stephen Bowen, a retired Navy submariner who flew on three space shuttle missions, Mr. Warren “Woody” Hoburg, a former research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and space novice, and Mr. Andrey Fedyaev, a space novice who has retired from the Russian Air Force, is also travelling on the Dragon capsule, which is scheduled to arrive at the space station on 3rd March 2023.

A clogged filter in the engine ignition system forced 28th February 2023’s initial launch attempt to be postponed at the last minute. A US-Russian-Japanese crew that has been up there since October will be replaced by them. Two Russians and an American who had their six-month stay extended to September due to a Soyuz capsule leak make up the other station occupants. Last Weekend, a new Soyuz arrived.

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