Updated on: November 10, 2021 / 10:55 PM EST / CBS News Four astronauts rocketed into orbit aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Wednesday, kicking off a 22-hour rendezvous with the International Space Station. The launch comes just two days after the crew they are replacing returned to Earth to close out the longest piloted mission in American space history. Strapped into the Crew Dragon "Endurance," commander Raja Chari, co-pilot Thomas Marshburn, Kayla Barron and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer blasted off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 9:03 p.m. ET, climbing away atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket using a previously flown first stage. Arcing over on a northeasterly trajectory paralleling the East Coast, the booster put on a spectacular show, knifing through low clouds and lighting them from above as it quickly climbed away on 1.7 million pounds of thrust. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket thunders away from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, boosting four astronauts toward space and a planned six-month stay aboard the International Space Station. NASA Two-and-a-half minutes later, after propelling the rocket out of the dense lower atmosphere, the nine engines powering the first stage shut down, the stage fell away and the flight to orbit continued using a single vacuum-rated engine powering the rocket's second stage. The first stage, meanwhile, flipped around to put its engines in the direction of travel and plunged back to Earth, landing on an off-shore droneship nine minutes after launch. It was SpaceX's 93rd booster recovery, and its 70th at sea. Three minutes later, the second stage shut down, putting the spacecraft in orbit and three minutes after that, the Crew Dragon was released to fly on its own. "On behalf of the SpaceX launch and recovery teams, it was a pleasure to be part of this mission with you," the SpaceX launch director radioed. "Enjoy your holidays amongst the stars, we'll be waving as you fly by. Cheers." "Thanks. It was a great ride, better than we imagined," Chari replied from orbit. A former F-35 test pilot and Air Force combat veteran, Chari will monitor the Crew Dragon's automated 22-hour rendezvous with the space station, approaching from behind and below before moving in for docking at the forward port of the lab's Harmony module around 7:10 p.m. Thursday. The Crew-3 Falcon 9 rocket lights up the night sky over the Kennedy Space Center as the booster thundered toward space. NASA TV Welcoming their new crewmates aboard the station will be Soyuz MS-19/65S commander Anton Shkaplerov, cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who celebrated his 55th birthday Tuesday. Dubrov and Vande Hei, launched to the station on April 9, plan to return to Earth on March 30, logging nearly a full year — 355 days — in space. Chari, Marshburn, Barron and Maurer plan to remain aboard the station until late April, handing off to another four astronauts riding up on another new Crew Dragon, the fourth in SpaceX's inventory. The planned duration of the Crew-3 flight is nearly 166 days.