SpaceX

Three NASA astronauts and one from Japan's space agency reach the ISS after a 27-hour flight following Sunday's liftoff from Kennedy Space Center.

Four astronauts are scheduled to take a SpaceX capsule to the International Space Station on Saturday. NASA hopes to demonstrate the safety and reliability of regular crew transportation to the ISS.

NASA and SpaceX are welcoming home two astronauts who splashed down safely in the Gulf of Mexico after several months on the International Space Station.

The two NASA astronauts who flew on the SpaceX craft to the International Space Station in May are scheduled to return to Earth on Sunday. But there's a hurricane forecast for the splashdown vicinity.

The docking came above China and Mongolia as the ISS was traveling at 17,000 mph. It docked 19 hours after the historic launch with NASA astronauts from the Kennedy Space Center.

The successful SpaceX launch has its roots in two previous administrations, but President Trump credited his own leadership.

After an aborted launch attempt to the International Space Station on Wednesday, the weather cleared and the launch went ahead on Saturday.

With astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken strapped inside the capsule and the countdown narrowing, poor weather conditions forced an abort. The next opportunity to try will be on Saturday.

When Doug Hurley launched aboard Atlantis on July 8, 2011, the future of human spaceflight from U.S. soil was uncertain. Nearly a decade later, the astronaut is piloting SpaceX's new Crew Dragon.

Later this week, NASA and SpaceX will launch the first rocket carrying astronauts from U.S. soil since the end of the space shuttle era. But COVID-19 has forced some changes to their plans.

The sudden departure of Doug Loverro startled the space community, which has been eagerly anticipating the planned May 27 launch of astronauts from U.S. soil for the first time since 2011.

The space agency is urging people not to travel to go see astronauts embark on their historic launch from Florida, the first time they will do so in nearly a decade.