Spectacular scenes played out over Florida’s Atlantic coast on Friday as SpaceX sent four new astronauts to the International Space Station in the early hours of the morning.
Observers near the Kennedy Space Center shared numerous photographs on social media of the Falcon 9 spacecraft headed to the station 250 miles above Earth, including official accounts for Walt Disney World and Universal Studios, just after its 5:49 morning launch. Others shared photos as it passed overhead in regions to the north — including Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.
The flight was the third manned flight that Elon Musk’s SpaceX has conducted in fewer than 11 months. The rocket included two Americans — NASA’s Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough — along with Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and the European Space Agency’s Thomas Pesquet, a French citizen. The group is scheduled to spend six months in space before returning to Earth with a splash in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Crew Dragon craft is expected to dock at the station about 23 hours after its launch, Fox 35’s Elina Shirazi noted, or roughly 5 a.m. Eastern on Saturday.
Watch above via Fox 35.