Passing into orbit early Saturday, a SpaceX crew capsule carrying a NASA commander, a Danish co-pilot, a Japanese surgeon-astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut rocketed into orbit and headed back to the International Space Station for a six-month tour of duty.
With Marine Corps helicopter pilot Jasmin Moghbeli and European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen in the cockpit, the crew's Falcon 9 rocket roared to life at 3: 27 a.m. EDT, and majestically climbed away from historic pad 39 A at the Kennedy Space Center.
The Falcon 9 quickly paced on a northeasterly route that matched that of the space station, as its nine first-stage engines utilized its load of refined kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants, generating a fiery night scene for area residents and tourists.
Two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, the first stage was jettisoned to fly back to a successful landing at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, while the second stage continued the climb to orbit.
The second stage engine shut down as planned nine minutes after launch, and three minutes after then, the crew Dragon spacecraft was released to fly on its own.
Hello Crew - 7, the unidentified SpaceX launch director radioed. On behalf of the entire SpaceX launch and recovery team, I'm honored to welcome Dragon, the first ever international crew to orbit. Thanks for the ride, it was awesome! Moghbeli responded to a report that said she had asked the prime minister to be rid of the corruption scandal. On behalf of Andy, Satoshi, Konstantin and I, we would like to thank the multitude of people who brought us to this unique moment. We're a united team, with a united mission, he said. If all goes well, Samoghbeli, Mogensen, Japanese astronaut-surgeon Satoshi Furukawa and Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov will be able to catch up with the space station early Sunday, matching the lab's 260-mile-high altitude and 17,000 mph velocity.
Continuing its automated approach, the Crew Dragon will dock in Harmony module's space-facing port at 8:39 a.m. local time, 29 hours after launch.
The space station has now been completed with eight crew Dragons, including one piloted test flight and seven operational crew rotation missions, along with two privately funded commercial flights with non-governmental astronauts.
NASA and SpaceX planned to launch the crew-7 mission early Friday, but the crew was scrubbed six hours before launch to resolve open paperwork needed to verify an oxygen valve in the crew Dragon's life support system would work with the required safety margin.
Another problem cropped up during the final stages of the countdown Saturday: A sensor reading indicating a possible nitrogen tetroxide propellant leak in the Crew Dragon's propulsion system. But with just minutes to spare, SpaceX engineers concluded the leak was so small that it was no threat to the crew or the six-month mission.
After being aboard, Moghbeli and her crewmates will begreeted by commander Sergei Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin, and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who launched the spacecraft nearly a full year ago aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. Also on hand: crew 6 commander Stephen Bowen, pilot Woody Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.
The company and Moghbeli are replacing Bowen and his crew - 6 colleagues. In the last March 2, Bowen's crew plans to undock from the station after a five-day handover, splashing down off the coast of Florida the next day to wrap up a six-month mission.
Hoburg had advice for the crew - 7 replacements.
They'll be very focused on their launch, their Rendezvous, their docking, he said from orbit. And then once they get there, the timescales change completely. We all feel like we want to go 100 miles an hour and put our training to use and be really effective right away. So they will hopefully have a bit of time to just relax, enjoy themselves and get into the groove of living and working up here aboard the space station. Russia plans to launch the Soyuz MS - 24 70 S spacecraft two weeks after crew - 6 departs, carrying cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and NASA's Loral O'Hara to the space station. Kononenko's crew will replace prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio, who plan to close out a marathon 371-day mission with landing in Kazakhstan on Sept. 27. They were originally scheduled to come home in March, but their Soyuz was affected by a major coolant leak in December.
In February, a replacement Soyuz was launched, but the crew's stay aboard the station was extended six months to put the Russian flight sequence back on its normal schedule. Rubio has set a new U.S. single-day record with eclipsing spacecraft astronaut Mark Vande Hei's current 355-day mark on Sept.11.
The late cosmonaut Valery Polyakov holds the world record for the longest single spaceflight of 437 days, a mark set aboard the Russian Mir space station in 1994 - 95. Scott Kelly, a NASA astronaut, was the first American to log for nearly a year in space, along with Vande Hei and Rubio.
Frank thought that when he flew to space he would be here for six months, Hoburg said. He discovered that it was extended to a year, as part of his mission. He's been a wonderful team to work with. Frank is making a huge sacrifice, being separated from his family for so long, and just want to acknowledge the service he has given us aboard the space station. Kononenko and Chubb are also planning to spend the next year on the International Space Station. The second Soyuz will blast off in March, carrying veteran commander Oleg Novitskiy, NASA's Tracy Caldwell-Dyson and Belarus researcher Marina Vasilevskaya.
The Russians, Vasilevskaya, Novitskiy and O'Hara will return to earth about 10 days later. Kononenko, Chubb and Caldwell-Dyson will come together next September.