Four astronauts – three American and one Japanese – are en route to the International Space Station following a successful launch from Florida yesterday.
The mission marks the first journey in a privately owned spacecraft being used for a full NASA mission.
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine spruiked the mission, saying “this is a great day for the United States of America and a great day for Japan and we look forward to many more years of a great partnership, not just in low-earth orbit but all the way to the moon.”
The crew named their capsule “Resilience” to reflect the hardships of the coronavirus pandemic.
SpaceX will now operate a rotation of journeys on behalf of NASA, after the space agency retired their capsules in 2011.
