NEW YORK, March 4. /TASS/. SpaceX Crew Dragon with members of the Crew-8 mission, including Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, has blasted off toward the International Space Station, according to a NASA webcast.

The Falcon-9 launch vehicle with the Crew Dragon spacecraft from a site in Florida took place at 22:53 local time on Sunday. The docking of the spacecraft with the orbital outpost is expected to take place on March 5.

Grebenkin is the fourth Russian cosmonaut to travel to the ISS on the Crew Dragon as part of the Russian-US seat-swap program.

The crew’s other members are NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps. The mission had been postponed several times due to poor weather.