SpaceX launches 4 astronauts to International Space Station


SpaceX on Sunday night launched four astronauts to the International Space Station, the first operational flight of the Dragon spacecraft.
Last week, NASA certified the Dragon as the first privately owned and operated spacecraft to be used for human spaceflight.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with astronauts Michael Hopkins, Shannon Walker, and Victor Glover of NASA and Soichi Noguchi of Japan's JAXA space agency on board. It will take about 27.5 hours for the crew to reach the International Space Station, where they will stay for six months. The astronauts will join two Russians and one American already at the ISS.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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