SpaceX recently had its 16th take-off of the year, hitting a rate of launches that is unmatched in the history of U.S. space exploration. The mission marks the fourth time a full NASA crew has been sent to orbit onboard a SpaceX vehicle. Joey Roulette, space writer at Reuters, joins Cheddar News to discuss.

Cheddar's News Wrap

NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 Mission Launches to Space Station

while you were sleeping. Take a look at what you missed early this morning. Two bye. Yes ignition. Let's stop talkin Okay so SpaceX had its 16th take off of the year hitting a rate of launches that is unmatched in the history of U. S. Space exploration. The mission known as crew four marks the fourth time a full Nasa crew has been sent to orbit onboard a SpaceX vehicle. And it's the seventh human space flight for SpaceX in the last two years. Joining me now to talk all about this is Joey roulette space for quarter at Reuters. Thank you so much for being with us. What details can you share with us about this latest launch the crew and what exactly they're gonna be doing once they reach the I. S. S. Yeah thanks thanks for having me Asia. Um this was spacex's seventh crewed launch since 2020. Um and it's one of the latest for NASA. And it had a A group of astronauts on it. There were four NASA astronauts and one astronaut from the European Space Agency and they're going to spend a few months on the I. S. S. Doing a lot of different research. Um And I think one of the notable things about this mission is that Jessica Watkins, one of the Nasa astronauts on here is going to be the first black woman to do a long term mission on the international space station. Um So yeah it's it's it's gonna be you know a fairly routine. Um I. S. S. Mission in terms of the science where they're gonna look at you know science projects that could benefit humans here on earth and understand the human body and how it behaves in space. Um But you know this is another milestone for SpaceX as well. Yeah you mentioned Jessica Watkins of course shattering yet another glass ceiling when it comes to space and progress moving forward. But talk to us more about the significance of this particular launch. Yeah so I mean SpaceX has kind of made a name for itself is breaking all type of types of milestones and just kind of keeps setting the bar high for for other companies here. But um this this mission is kind of important in particular because of the you know Jessica Watkins milestone but also because this is part of you know their overall reusability efforts. I mean the the crew dragon capsule that Ferried them to the I. S. S. Or it's currently burying them to the I. S. S. Um was a new capsule but it is going to be the last new capsule. Crew Dragon capsule to fly because SpaceX has a fleet of these things that they want to keep reusing over and over again. Um and so the booster that they also flow on flew on the rocket booster was a previously flown Falcon nine booster. Um And and that's notable too because Nasa initially was kind of cautious about letting SpaceX do that letting SpaceX launch their their astronauts on top of the reused rocket booster but they were able to convince Nasa so that it was safe, just like they were also able to convince Nasa that the crew dragon boosters was was also safe for reuse as well. So it's, it's kind of and an important, you know, kind of step towards capping off that crew Dragon Fleet for Nasa for SpaceX. Um, and they'll continue to reuse these capsules in the future. Yeah, Joey. I'm glad that you mentioned the skepticism that came from Nasa and also the pentagon. What do you think it was about SpaceX's work that has caused them to kind of fall back on that stance and be more forgiving moving forward with reusing these boosters. Besides the fact that of course this is going to take down a lot of the costs and some barriers in the way for future launches. Yeah, I think more broadly, a lot of people in federal agencies were kind of skeptical of SpaceX's early claims that I would be able to affordably and practically reuse these systems, something as massive as a, as a rocket booster or a crew dragon capsule. Um, and, and of course with Nasa when it's launching humans, it wants to be extra cautious. So there was some time between, uh, you know, the area where they're gonna allow SpaceX to reuse reuse systems and, you know, the the area where they were a little skeptical just to kind of do their due diligence and make sure that this company was serious about its safety culture and um it's you know, overall concern for for using these vehicles multiple times and time to tell that you know, SpaceX knows how to safely do it. They haven't had um any kind of accidents while humans were on board. They had one testing anomaly in 2019 but nobody was hurt and that was while it was on the ground. Um and kind of the same goes for the pentagon and for the D. O. D. Emissions. They're not flying humans yet I should say. I don't know if they have plans but they have precious national security payloads to that they care a lot about. So they too were kind of skeptical that they should be flying reused rocket boosters. And more recently one of the intelligence agencies, the National Reconnaissance Office for the first time kind of authorized um, SpaceX to re to to use used falcon nine rockets for their spy satellites. So it's these agencies are kind of just warming up to this kind of culture. Re use that SpaceX has pioneered here. All right Joey roulette. Space reporter at Reuters, thank you so much for joining us for that interview