Navy submarine officer and nuclear engineer. Air Force combat jet and test pilot serving as mission commander, and mission specialist Kayla Barron, 34, a U.S. 'Crew 3' includes two members of NASA's latest graduating class of astronauts - Raja Chari, 44, a U.S.

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. The three American astronauts and their European Space Agency crewmate were due to arrive at the space station, orbiting some 250 miles (400 km) above the Earth, on Thursday evening following a flight of about 22 hours. Live NASA video footage showed the four crew members strapped into the pressurized cabin of their gleaming white SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, wearing their helmeted white and black flight suits in the final minutes before launch. Intermittent rain and clouds over the Cape earlier in the day had cast doubt on launch prospects, but the weather cleared sufficiently by flight time, NASA said. Liftoff of the Dragon spacecraft, named Endurance by the crew, was aired live from Cape Canaveral on NASA TV. 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 NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as its nine Merlin engines roared to life at about 9 p.m.

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