NASA launches long-duration crew to space station

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/nasa-launches-long-duration-crew-to-space-station/ar-AAWDBp0?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=078cbc269bb84214814be4d80060d35b

NASA launches long-duration crew to space station
William Harwood - 2h ago

On the heels of the first all-private commercial flight to the International Space Station, four professional astronauts rocketed away early Wednesday and set off to the lab complex to replace four long-duration station fliers who plan to return to Earth next week.

Strapped into a brand new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket, Crew-4 commander Kjell Lindgren, pilot Robert Hines, geologist-astronaut Jessica Watkins and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti blasted off from historic pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 3:52 a.m. EDT Wednesday.
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Two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, well out of the dense lower atmosphere, the first stage fell away, flipped around and headed for touchdown on an off-shore landing barge while the Falcon 9's second stage continued the climb to orbit.

Then, in quick succession, the second stage engine shut down, the first stage successfully landed and the Crew Dragon was released to fly on its own. If all goes well, Lindgren and Hines will monitor an automated 16-hour 22-minute rendezvous with the space station, gliding in for docking at the Harmony module's upper port at 8:15 p.m.
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