SpaceX launches joint astronaut crew to ISS in Nasa's Crew-11 mission
The four-person crew — two Nasa astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and a Japanese astronaut — boarded SpaceX's Dragon capsule atop its Falcon 9 rocket at Nasa's Kennedy Space Centre and beat gloomy weather to blast off at 11.43am ET (3.43pm GMT). After an about 16-hour flight, they will arrive at the ISS at about 3am (7am GMT) on Saturday.
While normal crew rotation missions last about six months, the Crew-11 crew may be the first to settle into a new routine time of eight months, intended to better align US mission schedules with Russia's missions, Nasa said.
Over the next few months, Nasa officials will monitor the health of SpaceX's Dragon capsule, which remains docked to the ISS, before committing the mission to a full eight months.
Crew-11 comprise Nasa astronauts Zena Cardman and Michael Fincke, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui.
A previous attempt to launch on Thursday was scratched at the last minute because of bad weather.
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