Video: Soyuz MS-01 leaves the space station for landing

SpaceX trucked its Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft — refurbished with a new heat shield and structural enhancements — across the Cape Canaveral spaceport this week for attachment to a Falcon 9 rocket ahead of a planned liftoff next Thursday with four astronauts heading to the International Space Station.

The Cargo Dragon spacecraft, tail number C209, will carry 6,659 lbs. (3,021 kg.) of science and supplies to the orbiting outpost. Liftoff from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center happened Monday, April 21, at 4:15 a.m. EDT (0815 UTC).

Spare parts warehoused in the the United States and Russia will help Boeing finish assembly of a third space station docking port to receive arriving astronauts aboard Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsules, replacing a unit lost in a Falcon 9 launch failure last year.