Historic mission to ISS blasts off into space

A US space mission has blasted off on its way towards the International Space Station.

Axiom Mission 4 was launched on Wednesday morning from Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The craft includes the first astronauts from Poland, India and Hungary to work on the ISS.

It's due to dock on Thursday and remain there for up to two weeks while its crew conduct various scientific experiments.

Who's on board Axiom Mission 4?

Axiom Mission 4, or Ax-4 for short, launched from Nasa's Kennedy Space Centre with a brand-new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule riding on top of a Falcon 9 rocket.

Aboard the spacecraft are three astronauts who have never been to the ISS before: Indian Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, Poland's Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski and Tibor Kapu from Hungary.

The fourth and final member of the team is Peggy Whitson of the United States, a former Nasa astronaut.

She is the US's most experienced astronaut, totalling 675 days in space, and became the ISS's first woman commander in 2007.

The last time Poland, India or Hungary sent people to space - the three astronauts on board Ax-4 from those countries had not yet been born!

The craft is expected to dock with the ISS on Thursday.

The crew will spend about 14 days there and carry out more than 60 science experiments before returning back to Earth.