A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying four astronauts aboard spacecraft lifted off Sunday evening as part of the company's first operational mission to the International Space Station under a partnership with NASA, TechCrunch reported Monday.
Crew Dragon launched 7:27 p.m Eastern time at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Michael Hopkins and Shannon Walker plus Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Soichi Noguchi bound for the orbiting laboratory.
The spaceship, nicknamed “Resilience,” separated from Falcon 9’s second stage 10 minutes after liftoff and is scheduled to undergo a 27-hour traverse in orbit before docking with the ISS Monday at approximately 11 p.m. EST.
NASA said the Crew-1 launch is the first of six crewed missions for the company under the Commercial Crew Program.
The agency expects the astronauts to perform scientific and maintenance work during their six-month stay on the space station and return to Earth next spring.
Final reviews of the Crew-1 mission took place in late September. SpaceX secured certification last week for its Crew Dragon to carry out operational flights.
