On April 23rd, 2021 at 5:49 am, lifted off on a Falcon 9 numbered B1061.2 and in Crew Dragon C206.2, named Endeavour by astronauts Bob Benkhen and Doug Hurley. This was the first mission ever to use a previously flown booster and a previously flown capsule, being the first company ever to reuse both of the most vital components of the rocket. 

The crew of four consists of two American astronauts, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, one ESA astronaut, Thomas Pesquet, and one JAXA astronaut, Akihido Hoshide. This is the second spaceflight for Megan McArthur and Thomas Pesquet, and the third spaceflight for Shane Kimbrough and Akihido Hoshide. 

The launch went off without a hitch and got the astronauts safely into orbit while landing the first stage on the autonomous spaceport drone ship Just Read The Instructions 542 kilometers downrange from the launch pad. The crew then coasted and the capsule did a series of burns to raise its orbit all the way to the space station and dock to the forward hatch of the Harmony module almost a full day after liftoff. For a short while, there will be 11 people onboard the International Space Station.