The start had been postponed several times - but now, for the first time in three years, Matthias Maurer, a German astronaut, has started towards the ISS.
On board: a mascot.
Cape Canaveral - For the first time in three years, Matthias Maurer is a German astronaut in space.
The 51-year-old from Saarland started on Thursday with three NASA colleagues using a “Falcon 9” rocket on board a “Crew Dragon” from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida to the International Space Station ISS.
A few pervasive rain showers had caused concern, but then cleared in time.
"It was a perfect start," said NASA manager Steve Stich afterwards.
Start had been postponed several times
The start, originally planned for the last weekend in October, had previously been postponed several times - first because of bad weather conditions, then because of a "minor medical problem" with one of the crew members, and finally another crew had to be fetched back from the ISS.
"It's been two very exciting weeks and we've found what a diverse, vigilant and great team we have," said Nasa manager Kathy Lueders.
It is the third astronaut transport to the ISS with a spacecraft from SpaceX, previously there had already been a successful manned test with a "Crew Dragon".
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For the first time in three years, Matthias Maurer, a German astronaut, set off for the International Space Station ISS.
© John Raoux / AP / dpa
After around 22 hours of flight, Maurer and his NASA colleagues Thomas Marshburn, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron - the so-called "Crew-3" - are supposed to dock with the ISS on Friday.
They took a fabric turtle on board as a mascot, which began to hover shortly after take-off, indicating the beginning of weightlessness.
Chari and Barron belong to an astronaut selection group from NASA, affectionately known as "turtles".
Maurer says goodbye to earth on Twitter
Maurer is now the twelfth German in space, is set to become the fourth on the ISS - and is the first to fly in a “Crew Dragon” owned by Elon Musk for the private space agency SpaceX.
A few hours before the start, he said goodbye to the earth via the short message service Twitter.
“Our kite has waited long enough,” wrote Maurer.
"The next updates are coming from orbit!"
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The astronaut is to carry out numerous experiments on the ISS at an altitude of around 400 kilometers for about six months, and the astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA) is also expected to complete an outdoor mission.
The last time a German Esa astronaut was in space was Alexander Gerst in 2018.
Oldest German spaceman on a first flight
At 51, Maurer is the oldest German spaceman on a maiden flight.
After applying to Esa, the man with a doctorate in materials science left more than 8,000 candidates behind and trained for years for the journey into weightlessness.
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The 51-year-old from Saarland started on Thursday together with three NASA colleagues.
© John Raoux / AP / dpa
Actually, Maurer should have met his French colleague Thomas Pesquet on the ISS, who had been there since April.
Because of the many shifts, Pesquet and his crew - the NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur as well as the Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide - could not wait for the arrival of the "Crew-3" and returned to Earth on Tuesday.
Following Maurer, the Italian Esa astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti is scheduled to fly to the ISS in 2022 - this would be the first time that three Esa astronauts would be on the space station one after the other.
dpa