NASA and SpaceX hastily launched the Crew-3 mission tonight. The flight has become historic – the 600th man went into space in 60 years of exploration of distant frontiers.
The crew of Crew-3 included Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron from NASA, as well as Matthias Maurer from the European Space Agency. They will replace the crew of the Crew-2 mission on the ISS, which returned to earth the day before.
According to NASA, Maurer will become the 600th person in history to reach space in 60 years since the first manned flight into space. The pioneer was Yuri Gagarin in 1961, writes interestingengineering.com.
Space.com reports that the list of astronauts includes recent space tourists William Shatner and Jeff Bezos.
However, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently stated that they are not considered astronauts. The organization even changed its own rules to avoid giving out the honorary title to casual tourists.
Matthias Maurer became the 600th man in space / Photo: REUTERS
