NASA on Wednesday sent astronauts of the Crew-5 mission via a SpaceX crew Dragon spacecraft atop the company's Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station (ISS), from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A in Florida.

As part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program, the Crew-5 mission marks the fifth crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and the Falcon 9 rocket to the ISS since 2020. 

The Dragon spacecraft used in this mission, named Endurance, had previously supported the launch of Crew-3 and its return from the space station and flew with new and preciously flown components this time after refurbishment.

This marks the first time all four forward bulkheads Draco engines, which orient and provide altitude adjustment for the spacecraft during flight, are reused on a NASA commercial crew mission, while the heat shield, parachutes and nosecone were the new spacecraft components, according to NASA. 

SpaceX said the Dragon spacecraft, the first private spaceship taking humans to and back from the space station, can carry up to seven passengers. It is also the only spacecraft currently flying that can return a large amount of cargo to earth from space.

Crew members on the Endurance capsule include Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada of NASA, astronaut Koichi Wakata of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and cosmonaut Anna Kikina of Roscosmos, who joined the mission as part of a U.S.-Russian ride-sharing agreement.

Nicole Mann, the first Native American woman to space, will serve as the commander with her fellow Josh Cassada as the pilot. Apart from Mann, the mission marks the fifth spaceflight for Wakata, while being the first for Cassada and Kikina.

The crew will be welcomed inside the ISS by the seven-member crew of Expedition 68, after docking scheduled to complete around 17:00 EDT, October 6.  

Mission on ISS

According to NASA, the crew will conduct over 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations during their time in the orbiting laboratory at the ISS, before returning to Earth in the spring of 2023.

The experiments will include studies on printing human organs in space, understanding fuel systems operating on the Moon, and better understanding heart disease, NASA said. 

During their stay, Crew-5 will see the arrival of cargo spacecraft including the SpaceX Dragon and the Northrop Grumman Cygnus in the fall, the agency said. 

Crew-4 to return

The four astronauts of the Crew-4 mission, who have been in space for over five months as part of the crew of Expedition 68, will undock from the space station and land on the coast of Florida several days after Crew-5's arrival, according to NASA. 

The agency said in late August that it has picked SpaceX to fly five crewed missions to the ISS over the next six years.

SpaceX and Boeing were first picked up to provide transportation capability for NASA's Commercial Crew mission in 2014, while the latter aims to launch its first Starliner spacecraft to the ISS in early 2023.