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On second try, SpaceX launches multinational crew on mission to International Space Station

SpaceX and NASA's Crew-6 mission launches from Kennedy Space Center in Florida
NASA
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NASA TV
SpaceX and NASA's Crew-6 mission launches from Kennedy Space Center in Florida

The nine engines of SpaceX’s Falcon rocket roared to life at 12:34 a.m ET, lighting up the Florida sky and launching the multinational crew on a 25-hour trip to the International Space Station.

An attempt to launch this mission earlier this week was waived off when mission managers discovered an issue with the rocket’s ignition system.

That problem was resolved and the crew successfully blasted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Shortly after liftoff, the first stage booster of the rocket landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

The crew will dock with the station Friday at 1:17 a.m. ET.

Once at the station, the members of the Crew-6 mission -- two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates -- will spend up to six months on the I.S.S. conducting research and experiments.

They’ll relieve the four people of the Crew-5 mission which arrived last October. That team is set to return to Earth in about a week.

Brendan Byrne is WMFE's Assistant News Director, managing the day-to-day operations of the WMFE newsroom, editing daily news stories, and managing WMFE's internship program.

Byrne also hosts WMFE's weekly radio show and podcast "Are We There Yet?" which explores human space exploration.