{"id":424708,"date":"2026-02-14T03:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T03:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/424708\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T03:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T03:26:12","slug":"astronauts-in-awe-at-utterly-unique-fragile-earth-as-they-blast-off-to-iss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/424708\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronauts in awe at ‘utterly unique, fragile’ Earth as they blast off to ISS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four astronauts make their way to the ISS after succesful launchpublished at 12:24 GMT 13 February<\/p>\n

12:24 GMT 13 February<\/p>\n

\"\"Jacob Phillips
Live reporter<\/p>\n

\"TheImage source, Reuters<\/p>\n

Four astronauts have been successfully launched into orbit and are now on their way to the International Space Station. <\/p>\n

It’s particularly special for Nasa’s Jack Hathaway and Sophie Adenot, France’s second female astronaut<\/a>, who are enjoying their first ever moments outside of the Earth\u2019s atmosphere as items float around them in SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.<\/p>\n

“That was quite the ride,” said Commander Jessica Meir in her first comments after lift-off. “We have left the Earth but the Earth has not left us.”<\/p>\n

The astronaut observed how looking at the Earth’s oceans and landmasses served as a reminder for how “utterly unique” the planet is.<\/p>\n

Around the same time, the Falcon 9 rocket – which was used for the launch – headed home and left the Dragon spacecraft flying solo.<\/p>\n

There had been a lengthy wait for the team after the launch was delayed twice due to concerns about the weather, but their luck came on Friday the 13th – a Nasa official said he believes it’s the first time they have ever launched on that date. <\/p>\n

With the launch successfully behind them, the astronauts are now settling in for the 34-hour journey ahead before they dock at the space station.<\/p>\n

That’s a wrap for our live coverage, but you can relive the launch in our video round-up here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four astronauts make their way to the ISS after succesful launchpublished at 12:24 GMT 13 February 12:24 GMT…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-424708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}