KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. – NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut launched on a SpaceX rocket Sunday night after waiting two days for the weather to clear to begin their trip to the International Space Station.
After two weather delays, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off with the Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour and the Crew-8 mission astronauts on Sunday at 10:53 p.m. EST from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) launchpad 39A.
Before the launch, NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin arrived in Florida a week ago and conducted a launch dress rehearsal. With the launch delays, the crew spent additional time with family before their six-month trip to the space station.
The international astronaut mission has faced multiple delays due to poor weather off the Eastern Seaboard. Weather officers were concerned about strong winds and high waves along the launch abort zone. The Crew-8 mission was initially scheduled to blast off on Friday and was delayed for a second time on Saturday.
By Sunday night, the weather improved near the launchpad and along the Eastern Seaboard for SpaceX to launch the four-person mission into orbit.
Dominick, Barratt, Epps and Grebenkin waved goodbye to their friends and family outside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout building at KSC before loading up in Teslas and riding to the launch tower.
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After taking the elevator up to the top of the rocket, the crew signed the White Room wall at the end of the crew access arm on Launchpad 39A. SpaceX said that with the Crew-8 mission, 50 space flyers had signed the wall.
At the end of the countdown, the Falcon 9 launched, carrying the astronaut crew into orbit using 1.7 million pounds of thrust, propelling the vehicle into space.
The Crew-8 mission marks the eighth operation mission of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and the ninth SpaceX launch carrying NASA astronauts since 2020.
This is the fifth trip to the ISS and human spaceflight for Dragon Endeavour. Ahead of the flight, NASA and SpaceX teams took additional time to ensure the capsule was safe to fly.
The NASA-Roscosmos crew is set to arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday morning, setting in motion a busy time in orbit this spring.
While Crew-8 launched to the ISS, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is undergoing testing downrange at Cape Canaveral to launch the Boeing Starliner and two NASA astronauts in April.
“On the heels of Crew-8 for us and Crew-7 in return, we have the CFT, the crewed flight test mission, the flight test with Butch and Suni,” NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich said of Boeing’s first astronaut launch with Suni Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore.
The Crew-7 astronauts will prepare to return to Earth shortly after the new astronauts arrive. After six months on the ISS, the Crew-8 astronauts will return to Earth in the fall.