On Wednesday morning, SpaceX blasted NASA astronauts toward the International Space Station in a new mission, on the Falcon 9 rocket with a Crew Dragon spacecraft.
The beginning of a 16-hour trip to the International Space Station has begun and can be watched here.
The flight comes after NASA agreed in February to buy three more crewed flights from SpaceX, which recently said that it was operating a new crew vessel for the latest flight and a Falcon 9 booster meant to land on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Crew Dragon vehicle carried three NASA astronauts for the mission: Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines and Jessica Watkins, and astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.
The capsule named Freedom is scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station at 8:15 p.m. EDT Wednesday.
After arriving at the space station, the four astronauts will conduct scientific research including looking into developing artificial human retinas.
According to NASA program manager Steve Stich, in November, they will return to Earth on a company craft.
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