Four astronauts from different countries blasted off to the International Space Station. The SpaceX capsule in which they travel should arrive at the orbital laboratory on Sunday to replace the four astronauts who have been living at this site since March.
In addition to a NASA astronaut, aboard the rocket that lifted off before dawn from the Kennedy Space Center were astronauts from Denmark, Japan and Russia, who high-fived their gloved hands as they entered orbit.
“We are a united team with a common mission,” NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli said by radio from space.
This is NASA’s seventh rotational mission, in a manned SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, powered by a Falcon 9 rocket.