First German woman in space
A dozen German men have already been in space, but no woman - until now: Rabea Rogge from Berlin has set off on a mission.
Cape Canaveral (dpa) - Rabea Rogge (photo) from Berlin is the first German woman to go into space. On board a Dragon capsule, Rogge was launched from the Cape Canaveral space station in the US state of Florida, as can be seen on live footage. The capsule was launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket made by the company SpaceX.
No fully qualified astronauts are taking part in the Fram2 mission. Rogge, an electrical engineer, said that one of them doesn’t even have a pilot’s licence. “It is about making space flight more accessible rather than viewing it as exclusive. This is the only way we can plan new, even more interesting space missions and push the boundaries,” the 29-year-old said.
Fram2 - named after a Norwegian polar research ship from the 19th century - will spend around four days flying on a new orbit over the Earth’s polar regions. Among other things, the mission will study aurora-like phenomena from an altitude of 425 to 450 kilometres, while the first X-rays of human beings could also be taken in space.
According to the German Aerospace Center (DLR), twelve German men but no German women have been in space to date.