Astronauts who missed out last year finally get chance in space

The crew of a Nasa mission to the International Space Station pose before boarding their SpaceX rocket (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Astronauts sidelined for the past year by Boeing’s Starliner trouble blasted off to the International Space Station on Friday, getting a lift from SpaceX.

The US-Japanese-Russian crew of four rocketed from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre. They will replace colleagues who launched to the space station in March as fill-ins for Nasa’s two stuck astronauts.