WASHINGTON, United States (AFP): Four astronauts were successfully launched on the SpaceX Crew Dragon "Resilience" to the International Space Station on Sunday (Nov 15), the first of what the US hopes will be many routine missions following a successful test flight in late spring.
Three Americans – Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker – and Japan's Soichi Noguchi blasted off at 7.27pm (0027 GMT Monday, Nov 16) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, thus ending almost a decade of international reliance on Russia for rides on its Soyuz rockets.