CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Astronauts sidelined for the past year by Boeing’s Starliner trouble blasted off to the International Space Station on Friday, getting a lift from SpaceX.
The U.S.-Japanese-Russian crew of four rocketed from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. They’ll replace colleagues who launched to the space station in March as fill-ins for NASA’s two stuck astronauts.
Their SpaceX capsule should reach the orbiting lab this weekend and stay for at least six months.
Zena Cardman, a biologist and polar explorer who should have launched last year, was yanked along with another NASA crewmate to make room for Starliner’s star-crossed test pilots.
“I have no emotion but joy right now. That was absolutely transcendent. Ride of a lifetime,” Cardman, the flight commander, said aft