Watch as four astronauts prepare to launch aboard a SpaceXrocket to the Internation Space Station on Saturday 26 August
The astronauts, representing four nations and space agencies across the globe are Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov.
Their mission is expected to last more than six months.
The crew will ride aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance capsule on the mission, dubbed Crew-7, which will be jointly overseen by NASA and SpaceX en route to the space station.
NASA and SpaceX had been targeting an early Friday morning liftoff, but on Thursday night, officials stopped the launch attempt. In a blog post, NASA said the 24-hour delay was meant to allow engineers more time to “reconfirm required factors of safety” on the Crew Dragon spacecraft’s life support systems.
After today’s liftoff, the Crew Dragon capsule will detach from the Falcon 9 rocket, beginning its solo trek through orbit. The spacecraft will spend more than 24 hours carefully maneuvering toward the space station, which orbits about 220 nautical miles (420 kilometers) above Earth’s surface. The crew is expected to dock at the space station around 8:39am ET Sunday.
