SpaceX, NASA launch “Crew 3” astronauts to orbit on flight to ISS

NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX launched four more astronauts on a flight to the International Space Station (ISS) late Wednesday, including a veteran spacewalker, a German materials scientist and two younger crewmates chosen to join NASA's forthcoming lunar missions.

The SpaceX-built launch vehicle, consisting of a Crew Dragon capsule perched atop a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket, climbed into the night sky from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida around 9 p.m.

Armed with cameras, crowds gathered to watch the launch at Space View Park in Titusville, Fla., and were heard marvelling at the sight of the rocket creating a bright fireball as it took off.

The three American astronauts and their European Space Agency crewmate were due to arrive at the space station on Thursday evening following a flight of about 22 hours.

The flight marks the third "operational" space station crew sent to orbit aboard a Dragon capsule since NASA and SpaceX teamed up to resume space launches from American soil last year, following a nine-year hiatus at the end of the U.S. space shuttle program in 2011.

For more info, please go to https://globalnews.ca
Subscribe to Global News Channel HERE: http://bit.ly/20fcXDc
Like Global News on Facebook HERE: http://bit.ly/255GMJQ
Follow Global News on Twitter HERE: http://bit.ly/1Toz8mt
Follow Global News on Instagram HERE: https://bit.ly/2QZaZIB
#GlobalNews #NASA #SpaceX