SpaceX launched commander Jessica Watkins and her crew for NASA after a three-week delay to fix a leaking fuel system on their Dragon capsule. (PICS/ AFP)
Thick clouds threatened to halt the countdown throughout the morning, but the skies eventually cleared enough to allow a safe liftoff
Although their stay at the International Space Station will last six months, the journey there was the quickest yet for SpaceX and any American entity, including NASA
The space station's location at the time of launch enabled the fast transit
With the late-morning liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Watkins became the first Black woman to lead a crew to orbit
The other crew members are newcomers to space: NASA's Luke Delaney, a retired Marine; Canada's Joshua Kutryk, a colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force; and Russia's Sergey Teteryatnikov, a former submariner.
