Three NASA astronauts and a Roscosmos cosmonaut on board a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft were successfully launched by a Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday evening.
The mission, dubbed Crew-8, lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 10:53 p.m. EST, marking NASA’s eighth commercial ISS crew rotation.
The launch had initially been planned for Friday but was delayed twice due to high winds along the spacecraft’s ascent path.
Standing down from tonight’s launch of Crew-8 due to elevated winds in Dragon’s ascent corridor. Now targeting Sunday, March 3 for liftoff
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 3, 2024
On board the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft were NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, as well as Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin.
- READ MORE: NASA SpaceX Crew-8 Mission Launch Date Set
“On this eighth crew rotation mission, we are once again showing the strength of our commercial partnerships and American ingenuity that will propel us further in the cosmos,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Monday. “Aboard the station, the crew will conduct more than 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations to help fuel this new era of space exploration and benefit humanity here on Earth,”
The crew is scheduled to arrive at ISS on Tuesday around 3 a.m. EST, when the spacecraft will autonomously dock with the forward port of the space station’s Harmony module.
Once Crew-8 arrives, it will overlap with the existing ISS astronauts, Crew-7, until they depart to return to Earth a few days later, NASA said.
NASA is providing live coverage of the Crew-8 mission docking event and hatch opening starting at 3 a.m. EST. It may be viewed here.
Liftoff of Crew-8! pic.twitter.com/wqTFNNDGR9
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 4, 2024
