Despite deteriorating East-West ties, a Russian cosmonaut launched Wednesday on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule with two NASA crewmates and a Japanese space veteran, beginning a day-long journey to the International Space Station.

Anna Kikina, the sole active-duty female cosmonaut from Russia, Crew 5 commander Nicole Mann, Josh Cassada, and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata launched from the Kennedy Space Center at 12 Eastern in futuristic SpaceX pressure suits.

The Falcon 9 was propelled into the air by 1.7 million pounds of thrust and then arced away to the northeast, leaving behind a dazzling jet of flame from its nine first stage engines. It continued to accelerate steadily as it ate up propellant and shed weight.

The Falcon 9's upper stage launched the Crew Dragon — Endurance — out of the atmosphere and into low-Earth orbit nine minutes later, marking the start of a 29-hour rendezvous with the space station after it released its first stage for recovery on a landing barge.

The SpaceX launch director radioed, 'On behalf of the whole launch and recovery team, it's been an honour and a joy to be a part of this mission with you. 'Greetings, Endurance. Cheers.'

'Awesome!' Mann answered from space. 'The Falcon team is greatly appreciated. Whoo! That ride up the hill was effortless! Three novice astronauts are currently drifting in space, while one veteran astronaut is glad to be back on Earth.'

A short while later, Cassada displayed the crew's zero gravity indicator, a little doll of Albert Einstein with unruly white hair. The general relativity theory, according to him, was made possible by Einstein's discoveries concerning gravity and its absence, which led to the selection of the mascot.

Cassada continued, 'my crewmates are simply happy we didn't whip out a dry erase board and delve into further specifics,' after SpaceX praised him for the explanation.

Mann is the first Native American woman to be assigned to a space mission. She is a colonel in the Marine Corps and a carrier pilot for the F/A-18. Cassada is a captain in the Navy, a doctorate-holding expert in high energy physics, and a skilled pilot in his own right. Wakata, an aerospace engineer with a degree, is currently on his fifth space mission, spending a total of 347 days in orbit.