A SpaceX Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 10, carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station for a six-month stay. The Crew-3 mission will be the third operational flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and, while it hasn’t been the easiest road to the launchpad, the astronauts are ready to fly.
The launch was originally scheduled for Halloween but some nasty weather and a «minor medical issue» pushed lift off back by almost two weeks. Crew-3 will now be flying just hours after Crew-2 splashed down in the Atlantic on Wednesday.
We’ll be running live updates of all the major milestones heading into launch and beyond. You can also follow along via CNET Highlights YouTube page below. Ad astra, SpaceX and NASA!
«The good news is… everything is looking good,» says John Insprucker, the Principal Integration Engineer at SpaceX and a familiar voice for those of us who routinely tune in to SpaceX launches.
«The weather is looking good for launch,» he notes, but says «we’re still showing a 30% probability of violation.»
You know what else is looking good? Perseverance rover on Mars. If you haven’t heard, the rover drilled a tiny hole in some rock and has seen «something no one’s ever seen before.»
It’s time for «ingress,» which is just a fancy way of saying «the astronauts are going to climb into the spaceship.» Chari and Marshburn are the first two astronauts to climb in. Barron and Maurer enter about 10 minutes later.
One of the most sci-fi aspects of a Crew Dragon launch is seeing the astronauts walk through the crew arm, which leads up to the Crew Dragon capsule. The white walkway and those lighting effects makes it look just like something out of a movie.
Just under three hours before launch, the astronauts are on their way up to the top of the launch tower.
The four astronauts on today’s mission are:
- US Navy submarine warfare officer Kayla Barron
- Test pilot Raja Chari
- Veteran astronaut and emergency physician Tom Marshburn
- European astronaut Matthias Maurer, a German materials scientist who’s been with the European Space Agency for more than a decade.
