Falcon-Dragon Space Missions

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SpaceX Crew Mission 4

From left: Hines, Cristoforetti, Watkins and Lindgren

Freedom launches to the ISS with the crew members of Crew-4 onboard.

NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Robert Hines were announced on 12 February 2021 to the crew. Samantha Cristoforetti was named the commander of Expedition 68 on 28 May 2021. Jessica Watkins was named mission specialist on 16 November 2021. Cristoforetti was later removed as commander of Expedition 68 due to the shortening of the Crew-4 mission.

Crew-4 and Starliner OFT-2 docked to the ISS

Crew-4 astronauts before flight

Names USCV-4
Mission type ISS crew transport
Operator SpaceX
COSPAR ID 2022-042A
SATCAT no.52318
Mission duration 170 days, 13 hours, 2 minutes, 32 seconds
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft Crew Dragon Freedom
Spacecraft type Crew Dragon
Manufacturer SpaceX
Launch mass 12,519 kg (27,600 lb)
Landing mass 9,616 kg (21,200 lb)
Crew
Crew size4
Members
Kjell Lindgren
Robert Hines
Samantha Cristoforetti
Jessica Watkins
Expedition Expedition 67 / 68
Start of mission
Launch date not a number value UTC (3:52:55 am EDT)
Rocket Falcon 9 Block 5 (B1067.4)
Launch site Kennedy, LC‑39A
End of mission
Recovered by MV Megan
Landing date 14 October 2022, 20:55:27 UTC (4:55:27 pm EDT)
Landing site Atlantic Ocean, near Jacksonville, Florida
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric orbit
Regime Low Earth orbit
Inclination 51.64°
Docking with ISS
Docking port Harmony zenith
Docking date 27 April 2022, 23:37 UTC
Undocking date 14 October 2022, 16:05 UTC
Time docked 169 days, 16 hours, 28 minutes

Freedom after reentry and splashdown

The mission duration was 170 days. The European part of the mission was called Minerva, named after the Roman goddess of wisdom, and it was European astronaut Cristoforetti's second mission to the ISS.

SpaceX Crew-4 was the Crew Dragon's fourth NASA Commercial Crew operational flight, and its seventh overall crewed orbital flight. The mission launched on 27 April 2022 at 07:52 UTC before docking with the International Space Station (ISS) at 23:37 UTC. It followed shortly after the private Axiom 1 mission to the ISS earlier in the month utilizing SpaceX hardware. Three American (NASA) astronauts and one European (ESA) astronaut were on board the mission.

Crew-4 was the maiden flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft named Freedom, named such by the crew because it "celebrates a fundamental human right, and the industry and innovation that emanate from the unencumbered human spirit". The booster used on this mission was the B1067, which makes it the first Commercial Crew mission to use a booster on its fourth flight (it previously was used to launch SpaceX Crew-3 in 2021).