Good evening and a hearty welcome from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida! At 12:34 a.m. EST, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission will launch to the International Space Station from Kennedy’s historic Launch Complex 39A.
Weather is looking great, as officials with Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s 45th Weather Squadron continue to predict a 95% chance of favorable weather conditions for launch, with the flight through precipitation rule serving as the primary concern. Conditions along the Dragon ascent corridor are within acceptable limits, but will remain a watch item throughout the launch countdown.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, topped by the company’s Dragon spacecraft – named Endeavour – awaits liftoff in just a few hours. NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen, mission commander, and Warren Hoburg, pilot, along with UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, who join as mission specialists, will fly to the space station on a science expedition mission. Crew-6 marks the sixth crew rotation mission of SpaceX’s human space transportation system flight with astronauts to the space station for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
After an approximate 24.5-hour journey, the Crew-6 crew members will arrive at the space station for a short handover period with the flight crew the agency’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission.
At Kennedy’s Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, the astronauts will be suiting up in less than an hour. Tune in to NASA TV or the agency’s website at 8:45 p.m. EST to view the Crew-6 in the suit-up room. That will be followed by a live broadcast of key launch activities and milestones – through liftoff from the Space Coast of Florida.
More details about the mission can be found on the Crew-6 blog, in the press kit online and by following the commercial crew blog, @commercial_crew and commercial crew on Facebook.
Learn more about station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter as well as the ISS Facebook account.