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SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA including the first person from the Arab world going up for an extended month- long stay.

Image Source: Reuters

About SpaceX:

• SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) is a private aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in California, US.
• It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the goal of creating the technologies to reduce space transportation costs and enable colonisation of Mars.
• SpaceX has developed the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launch vehicles, both designed to be reusable, thus reducing the cost of launch.
• It also became the first privately funded company to successfully launch, orbit and recover spacecraft (Dragon) in 2010.
• It was also the first private company to send a spacecraft to ISS in 2012.

International Space Station (ISS):

• ISS is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite, in Low Earth Orbit (approximately 250 miles above Earth).
• The ISS programme is a joint project between five participating space agencies: 
  • NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).
• The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements.
• The station is divided into two sections, the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) and the United States Orbital Segment (USOS), which is shared by many nations.
• ISS is the ninth space station to be inhabited by crews, following the Soviet and later Russian Salyut, Almaz, and Mir stations as well as Skylab from the US.

News Source: The Hindu