A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying three US astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut has blasted off from Florida bound for the International Space Station (ISS).
The Crew-8 mission will be in space for six months. Space is one of the few areas where the US and Russia continue to co-operate closely despite the war in Ukraine.
The three men and one woman are in a capsule used in space four times before by Elon Musk’s SpaceX firm. They plan to do various experiments.
One will involve growing artificial replicas of human organs in the low-gravity environment – which is not possible on Earth.
It will be one of more than 200 science experiments that are to be conducted during the mission, scheduled to finish in mid-August, according to Nasa’s ISS programme manager Joel Montalbano.
The crew of four blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 22:53 local time (03:53 GMT Monday).
The first launch attempt on Saturday was called off due to strong winds.
Credit: bbc.com
