SpaceX launches crew of 4 astronauts to International Space Station

Driving the news: The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the four new crew members took flight at 9:03p.m. ET on Wednesday.

• The Dragon capsule is carrying NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, and Kayla Barron alongside European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer.
• The crew is expected to dock with the space station on Thursday at about 7:10p.m. ET.
• SpaceX successfully returned a different crew of astronauts to Earth from the space station earlier this week.

The big picture: Boeing is also planning to start flying people to the International Space Station under a contract with NASA at some point in the not-too-distant future.

• The company is expected to launch a repeat of an uncrewed test of its Starliner capsule in the first half of 2022, with a crewed test expected to fly sometime after that.