Tokyo: A rocket carrying SpaceX’s Crew-7 spacecraft with Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and three others aboard was successfully launched on Saturday Japan time.

This is the second space flight for Furukawa, 59, and the first since his stay at the International Space Station in 2011.

The Falcon 9 rocket, also developed by the U.S. space company, lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 4:27 p.m. (7:27 a.m. GMT).

About 12 minutes after the launch, the Crew-7 separated from the rocket and entered an orbit. It is scheduled to dock with the ISS at around 9:50 p.m. Sunday Japan time.

During his upcoming half-year stay in the ISS, Furukawa will conduct various experiments in the Japanese Kibo experiment module and elsewhere.

The experiments include a demonstration of a Japanese-developed water recycling system, a test of three-dimensional organ culture technology using the microgravity environment inside the ISS, and the release of a super-small satellite.

His three crewmates are U.S., Russian and Danish astronauts.

Last November, Furukawa was embroiled in a scandal in which many cases of misconduct, including falsification and fabrication of experimental data, were found in a space medicine research project he led.

Over the scandal, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, reprimanded Furukawa in January, but in May officially decided to allow him to participate in the space mission, judging that he had fulfilled his accountability.

JIJI Press