A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying four astronauts lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:10 a.m. on Thursday, October 1, bound for the International Space Station.

The Crew-13 mission carries Americans Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Joshua Kutryk and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. They were expected to reach the station in about eight hours, the shortest trip yet for a U.S. spacecraft to the orbiting lab.

The four will spend about six months aboard, replacing the outgoing Crew-12.

The launch had been pushed back from mid-September because of a leak aboard the Dragon capsule. Kutryk's wife is expected to give birth while he is in orbit.

Cooperation on the space station has continued despite the tensions that followed Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.