Four astronauts were on their way to the International Space Station Sunday evening after a successful launch of SpaceX rocket Crew Dragon.“The Crew-1 mission has lifted off on a Falcon 9 rocket from @NASAKennedy at 7:27pm ET and is en route to the @Space_Station,” NASA tweeted immediately after liftoff.Resilience rises. 🚀The Crew-1 mission has lifted off on a Falcon 9 rocket from @NASAKennedy at 7:27pm ET and is en route to the @Space_Station. #LaunchAmericapic.twitter.com/5Q3uXSLvqt— NASA (@NASA) November 16, 2020The mission will be the first time NASA is launching a privately-owned rocket into space. SpaceX is the rocket company of entrepreneur Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla.  The journey to the orbiting outpost is expected to take 27 hours. It was initially scheduled to begin on Saturday, but was delayed due to wind gusts, according to NASA officials.Separately, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence tweeted earlier Sunday that he was looking forward to attending the viewing of the launch with the second lady, Karen Pence. A White House statement said the Pences would travel to Florida Sunday and return to Washington in the evening.Looking forward to attending the viewing of @NASA’s @SpaceX Crew-1 Mission Launch tomorrow with @SecondLady! https://t.co/vDjOAHrOoJ— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) November 15, 2020In August, two U.S. astronauts returned to Earth, splashing safely into the Gulf of Mexico after a mission to the International Space Station aboard the commercially developed SpaceX spacecraft Crew Dragon.  The two men had lifted off from Florida in May, the first NASA astronaut launch from U.S. soil since 2011 and the first time a commercially developed spacecraft had carried humans into orbit.
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