UNC graduate launches as mission commander for SpaceX Crew 11 mission

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) -- A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate is back in space

Zena Cardman is be the mission commander for SpaceX Crew 11, which launched Friday after bad weather scrubbed the initial launch on Thursday.

The Dragon spacecraft will take 39 hours to travel from the launch at Kennedy Space Center to the ISS.

This isn't the first time she has seen the vast expanses of space, she was also one of four crew members selected for the SpaceX Crew 9 mission to the International Space Station in 2024.

Cardman, who delivered the commencement address in May at UNC, studied biogeochemistry as an undergrad.

She was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2017 from a pool of more than 18,000 applicants.

The NASA astronauts, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, will replace the Crew-10 team, which has been living and working on the ISS since March.

The Crew-11 team will have a full schedule of experiments and maintenance tasks upon arrival at the ISS, according to Bill Spetch, NASA's operations integration manager for the International Space Station Program.

ABC News contributed to this report