Watch the Crew-7 launch livestream right here.
Crew-7 launch to ISS predawn on Friday
When a brand-new Falcon 9 booster carries the Dragon crew capsule Endurance into orbit early Friday morning (August 25, 2023), space vacationers from 4 completely different nations will probably be aboard. And that’ll make the Crew-7 launch the primary Dragon flight crewed from 4 completely different space companies.
The Crew-7 mission will launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The instantaneous launch window is at 3:49 a.m. EDT (7:49 UTC) Friday, August 25. A backup alternative is obtainable later, on Saturday, August 26 at 3:27 a.m. EDT (7:27 UTC), if wanted. NASA TV protection of the launch begins at 11:45 p.m. EDT (3:45 UTC) on August 24.
Additionally, protection of the launch on the SpaceX YouTube feed – embedded on the prime of this web page – begins about an hour earlier than liftoff.
4 space vacationers from 4 space companies flying to the ISS
Crew-7 contains one NASA astronaut, Crew-7 commander Jasmin Moghbeli; one ESA astronaut, pilot Andreas Mogensen of Denmark; one Roscosmos cosmonaut, mission specialist Konstantin Borisov; and one JAXA astronaut, mission specialist Satoshi Furukawa.
That is NASA’s first flight with a special space company for every member of the crew. And notably, with Morgensen on the helm, it’s additionally the primary time a non-American astronaut has piloted a Dragon crew capsule. As NASA said:
Mogensen was chosen as an ESA astronaut in 2009 and have become the primary Danish citizen in space after launching aboard a Soyuz for a 10-day mission to the space station in 2015. Because the pilot on Crew-7, he will probably be chargeable for spacecraft techniques and efficiency.
Altogether, Crew-7 will spend a bit greater than six months aboard the ISS, experiences NASASpaceFlight.com:
The crew will be a part of the Expedition 69/70 crew on the ISS and conduct varied experiments and upkeep duties. Endurance and its crew will stay on Station for roughly 190 days, till early 2024, when the Crew-8 crew arrives on the ISS.
Subsequently, the Crew-8 mission is scheduled for early 2024.
SpaceX standing in for Boeing
General, the mission is the eighth time a SpaceX automobile will ship crew to the Worldwide Area Station. It was, nevertheless, purported to be the primary crewed journey of the Boeing Starliner.
The problem-plagued Starliner program has suffered one more delay in attending to the launchpad. This time, Boeing found flammable adhesive tape – and an entire lot of it – was utilized in Starliner’s building. The automobile’s parachute restoration system additionally has a number of defects that might trigger it to fail.
Regardless, when masking the latest Starliner fiasco, NPR reported Boeing received’t hand over on its spaceship:
[Boeing] says they’ll take the following a number of weeks to research the design points and provide you with potential options. For now, Boeing says it’s totally dedicated to this system and has no plans to cease growing Starliner regardless of being years delayed.
Boeing has not introduced a rescheduled date for Starliner’s subsequent try to get a crew into orbit.
In the meantime, the Falcon 9 booster that’s flying Friday – B1081 – goes up for its first time. After delivering the spacefarers to orbit, the 230-foot (70-meter) spaceship will return for a gentle touchdown again at Kennedy.
Backside line: Watch the Crew-7 launch to the ISS at 3:49 a.m. EDT (7:49 UTC) on Friday, August 25, 2023.
