Videos: Previewing SpaceX’s eighth International Space Station resupply launch

SpaceX engineers ran through a customary prelaunch countdown test Saturday and fired the Falcon 9 rocket’s nine Merlin main engines at Cape Canaveral ahead of liftoff Monday with 2.2 tons of supplies and experiments for the International Space Station.

Three fresh crew members lifted off at 1541 GMT (11:41 a.m. EDT) Friday on a six-hour trip to the International Space Station, riding a Soyuz spaceship from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The trio hails from Russia, the United States and Italy and boosted the station’s crew back to a full complement of six. Docking occurred at 2154 GMT (5:54 p.m. EDT).

A Cargo Dragon spacecraft launched to begin its fifth journey to the International Space Station, carrying with it more than 6,000 pounds of science and supplies. Liftoff happened at 9:29 p.m. EST Monday (0229 UTC Tuesday).