NASA and SpaceX are making final preparations for the Crew-7 flight to the International Space Station (ISS), with August 25 the currently targeted launch date.
The four spacefarers on the Crew-7 mission include NASA’s Jasmin Moghbeli from the U.S., the European Space Agency’s Andreas Mogensen from Denmark, Satoshi Furukawa of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Russian Konstantin Borisov of Roscosmos.
The crew will reach the space station the day after launch and then spend the next six months living and working aboard the orbital laboratory about 250 miles above Earth.
Crew-7 marks the eighth human spaceflight mission supported by a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and the seventh crew rotation mission to the space station since 2020 for NASA.
The launch is NASA’s first involving professional astronauts since the Crew-6 flight in February, and its first crewed mission since the Ax-2 flight in May that took four private citizens to the ISS.
What to expect
NASA and SpaceX will live stream events leading up to the launch, as well as the launch itself. Viewers will be able to see the crew making their way to the Crew Dragon capsule atop the Falcon 9 rocket at the Kennedy Space Center. You’ll also see the astronauts entering the capsule and taking their seats.
Cameras will track the rocket as it blasts off from the launchpad, powering the Crew Dragon capsule toward the ISS. The coverage will also include the return of the rocket’s first-stage for an upright landing so that it can be used again in another mission.
How to watch
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is targeted to launch Crew-7 no earlier than 3:49 a.m. ET (00:49 a.m. PT) on Friday, August 25, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
You can watch the launch and early stages of the flight via the video player that will appear at the top of this page close to launch day, or via SpaceX’s YouTube channel.
If weather issues or technical problems delay the launch, backup opportunities for the Crew-7 mission are available on Saturday and Sunday. Be sure to check SpaceX’s social feeds for the very latest news on the mission.
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