New space station crew launches from Florida on SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule

NASA's Crew-13 launches to the International Space Station The crew of four — two NASA astronauts, one from Canada, and a Russian cosmonaut — heads to the International Space Station after liftoff from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA's Crew-13 lifts off Thursday from Cape Canaveral, Fla. SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule "Grace" will take NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov to the International Space Station for about six months.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — Despite concerns about thunderstorms and gusty winds, SpaceX launched four people on NASA's Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station.

The Falcon 9 rocket leaped off the launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and soared northeast, over the Atlantic Ocean. It will take the capsule about eight hours to catch up with and dock to the space station. The four crew members will spend up to six months living and working aboard the outpost before returning home.

The crew includes two NASA astronauts. Commander Jessica Watkins , a geologist, is making her second trip to space, previously launching to the space station on the Crew-4 mission in 2022, and totaling 170 days in space (She was the first Black woman to serve on the space station, and has the most time in space of any Black woman). Pilot Luke Delaney, a naval aviator, is making his first trip to space. He's from DeBary, Fla. , around 50 miles from the Space Coast.

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