While all around planet Earth humans are engaged in military hostilities, when it comes to space exploration, at least for now, cooperation is still the rule.
Ever since the end of the Cold War, the US and Russia, as well as many other countries, have collaborated in many space projects, notably the International Space Station (ISS).
With the onset of the War in Ukraine, however, the rapid polarization of the geopolitical panorama hit the space industry head on, disrupting the cooperation plans between the two biggest space-faring nations, US and Russia.
So, as four human beings from four different countries are shuttled by a rocket in a spacecraft towards the ISS, there is a little consolation that, for once, we are all rooting in unison for success in the mission.
WATCH: SpaceX launches Cre-7 to ISS:
They are expected to reach the orbiting lab on Sunday, replacing the four astronauts living up there since March.
Associated Press reported:
“A NASA astronaut was joined on the predawn liftoff from Kennedy Space Center by fliers from Denmark, Japan and Russia. They clasped one another’s gloved hands upon reaching orbit.
[…] ‘We’re a united team with a common mission’, NASA’s Jasmin Moghbeli radioed from orbit. Added NASA’s Ken Bowersox, space operations mission chief: ‘Boy, what a beautiful launch … and with four international crew members, really an exciting thing to see’.”
Crew-7. Credit: NASA.
The Crew-7 is comprised of one American, one Danish, one Japanese and one Russian.
“’To explore space, we need to do it together’, the European Space Agency’s director general, Josef Aschbacher, said minutes before liftoff. ‘Space is really global, and international cooperation is key’.
“One of the perks of an international crew, they noted, is the food. Among the delicacies soaring: Persian herbed stew, Danish chocolate and Japanese mackerel.”
SpaceX’s first-stage booster returned to Cape Canaveral several minutes after liftoff.
CNBC reported:
“Known as Crew-7, the mission for NASA will bring the group up to the space station for a six-month stay in orbit. The mission is SpaceX’s sixth operational crew launch for NASA to date, and the first of the additional missions the agency awarded SpaceX.
aaCrew-7 consists of NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli as the commander, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen from Denmark as the pilot, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov as mission specialists.
SpaceX launched the astronauts in its Crew Dragon capsule called Endurance, on top of a Falcon 9 rocket. Both the rocket and capsule are reusable, with the Endurance flying on its third mission to date.”
Come to think of it, much like the space crew of the ISS, we are here – Americans and Russians and all the other nationalities – gathered together in ‘Spaceship Earth’ cruising around the Sun, and much like the space crew of the ISS, whatever our nationalities, we share the same fate, and have to ‘work together’ for a ‘successful mission’.
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