Four new astronauts depart for the ISS space station

The launch is scheduled for this morning at 07:45 Dutch time. The rocket with the four astronauts must then take off from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The astronauts are expected to arrive at their destination at 8:38 a.m. tomorrow morning, about 400 kilometers above Earth.

Crew members

One of the crew members is Sultan al-Neyadi (41) from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This country wants to profile itself with space travel.

In 2019, another astronaut from the United Arab Emirates visited the ISS for about a week. Since last year, a satellite from the country has been orbiting Mars, and later this year an unmanned trolley is expected to land on the moon.

Another crew member is American Warren Hoburg, 37. He’s trained to go to the moon in a few years. He is one of the astronauts of the so-called Artemis program.

The other two who will travel to the ISS on Monday are American Stephen Bowen (59) and Russian Andrej Fedjaev (42).

Current residents

There are now three residents from the United States, three from Russia and one Japanese on the ISS. Four of them are to return to Earth next month. Replacement transport arrived on Sunday for the other three, a new ship with which they can return in September.

The spacecraft they were to depart with was destroyed by the impact of space debris. This craft will go to Earth next month with no one on board.