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At 3:27am EDT this morning, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launched from Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida. On top of the Falcon 9 rocket is their Crew Dragon spacecraft, capable of carrying up to 7 Astronauts into Orbit. This is the 7th operational crewed ISS rotation mission by SpaceX and the first of 3 additional missions contracted by NASA after the delays to Boeing's Starliner spacecraft.
This is the 3rd mission flown by SpaceX's Crew Dragon named "Endurance" as they continue to drop costs to space by reusing their first stage boosters and Crew/Cargo Dragon spacecraft pressure vessels. The launch this morning did feature a brand new first stage, Booster 1081, and performed a landing back at LZ-1 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL. This is the first time a "Return to launch site" (RTLS) landing has occurred on a crewed mission. Another first on this flight, each seat in Dragon has an Astronaut from a different Space Agency, and the pilot not being a NASA Astronaut.
Commander: Jasmin Moghbeli (NASA)
Pilot: Andreas Mogensen (ESA)
Mission Specialist: Satoshi Furukawa (JAXA)
Mission Specialist: Konstantin Borisov (Roscosmos)
It will take approximately 30 hours from launch for the crew to rendezvous with the International Space Station, before autonomously docking and allowing crew to enter the station. Their stay will last 190 days depending on how weather looks at the splashdown sites on the planned departure dates.