An international crew of four astronauts launched toward the International Space Station from Florida on Friday aboard a SpaceX rocket, embarking on a routine NASA mission that could be the first of many to last a couple months longer than usual.

A SpaceX capsule launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, 1 August, as the orbiting laboratory celebrates 25 years of continuous human occupancy. Three astronauts and one cosmonaut in the US-Japanese-Russian crew rocketed from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.