January 19, 2024 06:53 am | Updated 07:10 am IST - CAPE CANAVERALTurkey's first astronaut and three other crew members representing Europe were launched from Florida on January 28 on a voyage to the International Space Station in the latest commercially arranged mission from Texas startup Axiom Space. A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying the Axiom quartet lifted off about an hour before sunset from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, beginning a planned 36-hour flight to the orbiting laboratory. The autonomously operated Crew Dragon was expected to reach the International Space Station (ISS) early on Saturday morning and dock with the orbiting outpost some 250 miles (400 km) above Earth. Axiom billed the flight as "the first all-European commercial astronaut mission" to the space station. NASA, besides furnishing the launch site at Cape Canaveral, assumes responsibility for the astronauts once they rendezvous with the space station.

Source: The Hindu January 19, 2024 18:24 UTC