Cape Canaveral, Florida - A four-person NASA and SpaceX flight to the International Space Station (ISS) lifted off from the Cape Canaveral launch site in Florida on Wednesday after being delayed due to Hurricane Ian.

The Crew-5 mission consists of NASA astronauts Nicole Aunapu Mann and Josh Cassada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina.

Kikina was the first cosmonaut to travel to the ISS under a cross-flight program agreed upon this summer between NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

The deal, which was reached despite sky-high tensions over the war in Ukraine, allows mixed US and Russian crews to travel to the space station aboard each nation's spacecraft.

Two weeks ago, the two Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin flew to the ISS together with NASA astronaut Frank Rubio. They were launched aboard a Soyuz capsule from the Russian spaceport Baikonur in Kazakhstan.

The mission aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule was originally set for October 3, but had to be postponed due to Hurricane Ian.

SpaceX is a private spaceflight company founded by Elon Musk that contracts with NASA to deliver crew and cargo to the space station.