Historic SpaceX Crew

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Four astronauts blasted off Thursday on a space station mission that will stretch until spring, among them a Canadian whose wife will give birth while he’s away. SpaceX launched commander Jessica Watkins and her crew for NASA after a three-week delay to fix the capsule’s leaking fuel system. Although their stay at the International Space Station will last a long six months, the flight there promised to be the quickest yet for Elon Musk’s company: a mere eight-hour transit with an arrival well before bedtime. With the late morning liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Watkins became the first Black woman to lead a crew to orbit. A geologist who worked with NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity a decade ago, Watkins is making her second trip to the space station following a lengthy stay in 2022.