Washington - (AFP) - A new SpaceX spacecraft took off Wednesday, carrying a mission from the US Space Agency (NASA) to the International Space Station, after another Elon Musk spacecraft containing businessmen landed at sea off the shores of Florida.

The mission, called "Crew-4", took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 03:52 local time (07:52 GMT) and includes Americans Kjell Lindgren, Bob Haynes and Jessica Watkins, in addition to Italian Samantha Cristoforetti from the European Space Agency.

The launch process was broadcast live on the NASA website.

And this takeoff came less than 40 hours after the return of another crew, which constitutes an acceleration of the pace of flights within the framework of “SpaceX” assuming the role of carrier for NASA missions to the International Space Station.

Between the discontinuation of the American space shuttle in 2011 and the year 2020, the Americans relied on the Russian "Soyuz" spacecraft.

The four astronauts who make up the "Cro-4" mission will join another crew whose return to Earth is close after five months at the station. The date for the return of this team will be determined soon.
There are also three Russian cosmonauts at the station.
The new crew will conduct and monitor hundreds of scientific experiments in zero gravity, including on plants, or on an artificial retina project for the human eye.
Jessica Watkins will be the fifth black woman in space and the first to join the International Space Station for a long mission.
It is expected that she and her three colleagues will arrive at the International Space Station about 17 hours after take-off, with docking to take place at 00:15 GMT on Thursday.