On Nov. 10, 2021, SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station on the Crew-3 mission for NASA. Liftoff occurred at 9:03 p.m. EST from NASA's Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Crew-3 mission marked SpaceX's fifth crewed spaceflight and the fourth astronaut mission for NASA. Crew-3 launched NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer. It is the first spaceflight for Chari, Barron and Maurer, though Marshburn has flown before.
Check out SpaceX's stunning nighttime launch of the Crew-3 mission here, as well as photos from the flight, by clicking the arrows above.
In this image: The four astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-3 mission for NASA strike a pose in their launch suits ahead of launch. They are: (from left) ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, mission specialist; NASA astronauts Tom Marshburn, pilot; Raja Chari, commander; and Kayla Barron, mission specialist.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer onboard, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer onboard, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Guests watch the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission with NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer onboard, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021, from the balcony of Operations Support Building II at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida
SpaceX's Crew-3 astronauts are seen inside their Crew Dragon Endurance ahead of a planned launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A on Nov. 10, 2021.
NASA astronaut Raja Chari (second from right) is commander of the Crew-3 mission, with NASA's Tom Marshburn (second from left) as pilot.
NASA astronaut Kayla Barron (right) and ESA's Matthias Maurer of Germany are mission specialists.
NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn, wearing a SpaceX spacesuit, gives a thumbs up as he prepares to depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Launch Complex 39A to board the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-3 mission launch, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer, left, and NASA astronauts Tom Marshburn, second from left, Raja Chari, second from right, and Kayla Barron, right, wearing SpaceX spacesuits, are seen as they prepare to depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Launch Complex 39A to board the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-3 mission launch, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA astronaut Raja Chari, wearing a SpaceX spacesuit, points towards friends and family as he prepares to depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Launch Complex 39A to board the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-3 mission launch, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer gives a thumbs' up from his Tesla ride to the launch pad as he and crewmates NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Tom Marshburn, and Raja Chari depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building for Launch Complex 39A to board the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-3 mission launch, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
SpaceX's Crew-3 astronauts wave to family and friends as the walk out of NASA's Operations and Checkout Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to head to the launch pad for their Nov. 10, 2021 launch to the International Space Station.
The building is home to NASA's Astronaut Crew Quarters and is where astronauts suit up for launches into space at the Kennedy Space Center. It was a rainy walkout for the Crew-3 astronauts, as occasional rain showers peppered their launch site ahead of liftoff.
The rainy weather ahead of SpaceX's Crew-3 launch is evident in the many umbrellas held by onlookers as the four astronauts left their crew quarters.
Family and friends waved and wished the astronauts well. Due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, only a limited amount of media and family were in attendance.
In 2020, NASA revived its "worm" logo for U.S. astronaut launches from Florida. You can see it emblazoned on a poster and the Tesla electric cars waiting to drive the Crew-3 astronauts to the launch pad. It's on their Falcon 9 rocket, too.
A stunning view of SpaceX's Crew-3 Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad the night before launch.
This photo, taken by a SpaceX photographer on Nov. 9, shows the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon Endurance as the bright moon shines overhead with three bright planets.
Venus is visible to the far right. Above and to the left of the moon is Saturn. Jupiter is shining bright at top left.
German Crew-3 astronaut Matthias Maurer, of the European Space Agency, poses with trash bags during a launch delay.
"I've been relaxing during my quarantine by collecting rubbish on the beach 😳 ," Maurer wrote on Twitter, showing a picture of himself holding a large trash bag.
"Sadly, this is not the only bag I filled," he continued. "We really need to think about our environmental impact on Earth and in space. Clean oceans, clean space! It's up to all of us."
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen on the pad at Launch Complex 39A during a brief static fire test at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 28, 2021, ahead of the Crew-3 mission.
SpaceX regularly test fires its Falcon 9 rocket first stages, which have 9 Merlin engines, to make sure boosters are ready for launch. They usually occur a few days before liftoff.
Crew-3 mission commander Raja Chari of NASA poses for a portrait in his SpaceX launch suit.
Raja Chari, 44, is one of NASA's newest group of astronauts, joining the astronaut corps in 2017 along with his Crew 3 crewmate Kayla Barron. He is trained as a test pilot from the U.S. Navy test pilot school and is the Crew 3 mission commander, marking the first time a rookie commercial crew astronaut was named to the position.
Chari graduated with a masters degree from MIT in aeronautics and astronautics and has logged over 2,500 flight hours. He has always been fascinated with flying, and chose to go to test pilot school as it combined two of his favorite things: engineering and flying.
He was the commander of the 461st Flight Test Squadron at Edwards Air Force Base in California when he was selected as an astronaut and following two years of astronaut training, Chari went on to become the Director of the Joint Test Team for NASA's commercial crew program.
In 2020, NASA announced its cadre of astronauts that will be part of the agency's return to the moon; Chari was announced as one of the 18 astronauts selected.
Crew-3 pilot Tom Marshburn poses for a portrait in his SpaceX-issued launch suit.
Tom Marshburn, 61, is a physician, who is trained in emergency medicine, and started his career at NASA in 1994 as a flight surgeon.
Selected as an astronaut in 2004, Marshburn is a veteran of two spaceflights: STS-127 and Expedition 34/35. Prior to joining the astronaut corps, he served as a flight surgeon, assigned to the space shuttle medical operations and to the joint U.S./Russian space program. He was then promoted to Medical Operations Lead for the ISS.
He completed his first spaceflight, STS-127 in 2009, having logged more than 376 hours in space and just under 19 hours over the course of three spacewalks. Marshburn launched to the space station on his second flight in 2012, where he racked up an additional 146 days in space and another 5.5 hours spacewalk time as part of an emergency spacewalk to repair a leaking ammonia pump.
Marshburn is the only veteran astronaut on the Crew 3 mission, and will serve as the mission's pilot.
NASA astronaut Kayla Barron, Crew-3 mission specialist, poses for a photo inside SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule.
Kayla Barron, 34, is a graduate of the U.S. Naval academy, having earned her master's degree in Nuclear engineering from the University of Cambridge. She's one of the first class of women to be commissioned as a submarine officer.
She then joined the astronaut corps in 2017, along with her Crew 3 crewmate, Raja Chari. Barron is serving as a mission specialist for the flight and the Crew 3 mission will mark her first spaceflight.
Barron says she has never witnessed a rocket launch up close, so her flight will be her first launch all-around. She told Space.com in a prelaunch chat that she is most excited to hopefully log some spacewalk time.
As part of her duties as a mission specialist, Barron will monitor the Crew Dragon's launch and re-entry phases during flight to make sure everything is progressing nominally. Once on board the ISS, she will serve as a flight engineer.
Also selected as one of NASA's Artemis astronauts, Barron could join Chari as one of the two astronauts that could walk on the lunar surface one day.
European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer of Germany. He'll make his first flight to space on SpaceX's Crew-3 flight for NASA.
Matthias Maurer, 51, is a German astronaut with the European Space Agency. He studied materials engineering before joining Europe's astronaut corps in 2017. (He was retroactively added to ESA's astronaut class of 2009.) He started out as a crew support engineer before graduating to astronaut candidate in 2015.
Prior to that, in 2014, Maurer took part in the CAVES mission, an analogue mission where a team of astronauts live and work in an underground cave in order to simulate the isolated conditions of outer space.
He then participated in another analogue mission — NASA's NEEMO 21 (NASA Extreme Environment Operations Mission) — where he and three other crewmates lived in an underwater habitat for 16 days. Maurer and his crew tested out technologies and strategies that NASA and its partners will use for future Mars missions.
Maurer says he is bringing up some special German food to share with his crewmates. "It's Ragu that's made from potato soup — typical German food — and I'll be sharing it with my crewmates," he said during a prelaunch news briefing on Oct. 7. "It's a surprise for me, so I haven't tested it yet. But I'm pretty sure it will be very delicious."
He is the second European astronaut to fly on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, following the footsteps of French astronaut, Thomas Pesquet, who launched in April as part of the Crew-2 mission. He will serve as a mission specialist on the flight, along with crewmate Kayla Barron.
