SpaceX-NASA launches Crew-8 astronaut mission to International Space Station (Video)

A SpaceX rocket carrying a crew of three US astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut took off from Florida on Sunday night. The crew is heading to the International Space Station (ISS) to begin a six-month mission in Earth orbit.

The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket topped with an autonomously operated Crew Dragon capsule dubbed Endeavor was launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral at 10:53 p.m. (0353 GMT Monday).

It took about nine minutes for the capsule to settle into orbit as it prepared to dock with the ISS and relieve four other crew members.

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Liftoff of Crew-8! pic.twitter.com/wqTFNNDGR9

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 4, 2024 >

A first attempt to launch the mission on Saturday was postponed due to high winds.

Despite tense relations otherwise, space remains a rare area of cooperation between the United States and Russia since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

US-Russian crew

The four crew members were launched in the Endeavour capsule, which has already been launched four times by billionaire Elon Musk's company SpaceX.

For three of them, this is their first time in space: mission commander Matthew Dominick, a 42-year-old former Navy test pilot, Jeanette Epps, a 53-year-old who previously worked for Ford Motor Co and the CIA, and Russian Alexander Grebenkin, 41, a former military aircraft engineer.

The mission's pilot is the most experienced of the crew: Michael Barratt, 64, who has already visited the ISS two previous times and taken part in two spacewalks.

They are expected to reach the orbiting lab on Tuesday. They will replace a crew of seven from the US, Denmark, Japan and Russia. 

Four of those members will return to Earth after an overlap of a few days.

The crew will carry out experiments such as using stem cells to create organoids (artificially grown masses of cells resembling organs) to study degenerative diseases. They will take advantage of the microgravity environment to enable three-dimensional cell growth, which is not possible on Earth.