UPDATE: Friday’s launch attempt scrubbed. SpaceX and NASA are now targeting no earlier than Saturday, August 26th for launch of Crew 7.
SpaceX is ready to launch the next crew of astronauts to the International Space Station. Crew-7 will launch in Crew Dragon Endurance on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, August 26th at 2:27 a.m. CDT.
NASA will provide live coverage of the launch and prelaunch activities on NASA TV beginning at 10:45 p.m. on Friday, August 25th.
This mission is a truly international crew of astronauts representing four different space agencies. The Crew-7 astronauts include Jasmin Moghbeli from NASA, Andreas Mogensen from ESA, Satoshi Furukawa from JAXA, and Konstantin Borisov from Roscosmos. Both Moghbeli and Borisov will be making their first trip to space, while Mogensen and Furukawa are each making their second trip to space.
Following the launch, Endurance will make its way to the ISS and is expected to dock on Saturday, August 26th at around 1:02 a.m. CDT. Docking activities will also be broadcasted live on NASA TV. The ISS will be crowded for a few days, while Crew-7 and Crew-6 work together before the Crew-6 astronauts head home. Crew-7 is expected to remain on Station for a 190 day mission.
While on the Space Station the crew will carryout experiments and conduct research looking into several aspects of human exploration in space. These research projects include the collection of microbial samples from around the Space Station, an astronaut sleep study, and the effects of long duration space travel on the human body.
