In pictures: SpaceX Crew-1 mission from NASA's Kennedy Space Center

A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying four astronauts has been successfully launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center

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A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying four astronauts has been successfully launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, marking the take off of NASA's first operational flight to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a privately owned spacecraft.

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The Crew Dragon lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 7.27 p.m. EST on Sunday

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SpaceX's second crew has two military officers who played college football, a former space shuttle flight controller, and the first person in decades to launch aboard three kinds of rocketships.The three Americans and one Japanese should reach the International Space Station late Monday for a five- to six-month stay, following Sunday's liftoff from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

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The spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, along with Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has safely reached orbit, NASA said.

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The latest launch comes 18 years after Elon Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Crew-1 is the first crew rotation flight of a US commercial spacecraft with astronauts to the space station following the spacecraft system's official human rating certification.

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The four astronauts will spend six months at the space station for their research. The Crew Dragon is scheduled to dock to the space station at about 11 p.m. on Monday, NASA said.