New US-Russian crew heads to space station

A SpaceX rocket carrying three US astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut has blasted off from Florida bound for the International Space Station (ISS), BBC reports.

They have a six-month mission, and space is one of the few areas where the US and Russia continue to co-operate closely despite the war in Ukraine.

The three men and one woman are in a capsule used in space four times before by Elon Musk's SpaceX firm. The crew blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 22:53 local time (03:53 GMT Monday).

Their research will include growing artificial replicas of human organs to study degenerative diseases in the low-gravity environment - which is not possible on Earth.

Matthew Dominick is the leader of the mission and, along with fellow American Jeanette Epps and Russian Alexander Grebenkin, is making his first flight into space. The other crew member is physician Michael Barratt, on his third visit to the ISS.