Crew of Four NASA Astronauts Launch into Space from Kennedy Space Center

NASA successfully launched four astronauts into orbit this morning on a SpaceX rocket. The SpaceX crew-4 astronaut mission lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida this morning at 3:52 a.m. and will reach the ISS around 8:15 this evening. During the 16-hour flight inside the capsule called ‘Freedom’, the crew will orbit the Earth 10 times. Onboard the spacecraft is NASA astronaut and Commander  Kjell Lindgren, Pilot Bob Hines, and Mission Specialist Jessica Watkins and the European Space Agency’s Mission Specialist Samantha Cristoforetti. The mission is the first with an equal number of men and women and the first long-term flight with a Black woman. The crew will spend 5 months aboard the ISS and replace three Americans and a German who will return to Earth this week.