SpaceX launched a four-person crew into orbit Wednesday morning from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Derrick Pitts, the chief astronomer and planetarium director of the Franklin Institute, joins "The Daily Report" to break it down.

Florida

A SpaceX rocket successfully launched a four-person crew into orbit from the Kennedy Space Center, with the mission organized by Axiom Space. The launch experienced delays due to small, persistent air leaks in the Russian Vezda module of the International Space Station, which astronauts have been working to seal for years. 

Once aboard the ISS, the crew is set to carry out around 60 scientific experiments for various countries, leveraging the station's low-gravity environment. The mission also serves as training for astronauts in preparation for the future commercialization of low-Earth orbit, as Axiom Space works toward building the first commercial space station to eventually replace the ISS.

Small air leaks impact International Space Station

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, ignition, and liftoff. And there it goes. That was the moment SpaceX launched a four-person crew into orbit this morning from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission is being brokered by the Houston-based commercial space company Axiom Space with a final destination of the International Space Station by tomorrow morning. Derek Pitts joins us now. He is the chief astronomer and planetarium director of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. What a fun title. Derek, thanks so much for being with us. Really cool to see this launch, but there are a few delays leading up to it. What happened? Well, the delays are really all on the International Space Station side. At the back end of the Russian module known as Vezda, there have been pesky, persistent little air leaks that astronauts have been trying to tie down and seal up for years. They're really small leaks. And so they've been essentially balancing out the loss of air by adding a little bit of air to the space station. But they really wanted to try to get these leaks, get a good handle on these leaks before the crew came on board. So that was the reason for the two-week delay from June 12th, that was the previous launch date, until just early this morning. So what will the crew be doing once they get to the ISS? What's the goal of this particular mission? Well, this crew is going to have their hands full. They have upwards of 60 experiments that they're going to be conducting for various countries around the world that have gained access to the low-gravity environment through this particular mission so that they can do investigations into the space environment. So there's that part. But the other part is that these astronauts are actually training for a future career in space. We're really watching the opening steps of the true commercialization of low-Earth orbit. Axiom, the company itself, is well on its way to building the first commercial space station that's going to replace International Space Station at the end of this decade. So these astronauts are learning what it's like to live and work in space and to look at the space environment from a manufacturer's point of view. How do we take advantage of this environment to build up our manufacturing capability of space and establish a real low-Earth orbit space economy? So that's what this mission is doing also. Derek, I'm supposed to ask you about how long they will be up there. But given that you're saying that this is really a cutting-edge thing for commercial tourism, I also want to ask you how long until we will be there. I'm ready to go next week, Nancy. Are you? Sign me up. Let's do it. Let's go. All right. On the record there, Derek Pitts, thank you very much for meeting up with us. Thanks, Nancy.

Officials in the U.S. state of Texas say at least 13 people have died in overnight flash floods after torrential rains triggered an overflow of the Guadalupe River. Nearly 20 children attending a summer camp in the south-central area are missing.

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Bryan Kohberger changed his plea to guilty Wednesday for the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students. CBS News national correspondent Carter Evans has more on the case.

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