SpaceX Launches NASA's Eighth Crew to Orbit

A SpaceX rocket launched from Florida yesterday, Sunday, carrying a crew of three American astronauts and one Russian astronaut on their way to the International Space Station to begin a six-month scientific mission in Earth orbit. The Falcon 9 rocket, featuring a two-stage design and an autonomous Crew Dragon capsule named Endeavour, lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, along Florida's Atlantic coast, at 10:53 PM Eastern Time (03:53 GMT on Monday). SpaceX and NASA's live online broadcast showed the 25-story spacecraft ascending from the launch tower. The four crew members are scheduled to arrive at the space station early Tuesday after a 16-hour journey, docking with the orbital laboratory approximately 420 kilometers above Earth. This marks NASA's eighth long-duration crew transport to the International Space Station.