NASAs SpaceX Crew-9 Arrives at Launch Pad
Members of NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 are about two hours away from launch!
NASA astronaut Nick Hague, commander, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, mission specialist, arrived at Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, where a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft will launch them to the International Space Station.
Space Launch Complex-40 carries decades of history dating back to the 1960s when Titan rockets launched from the pad for the United States Air Force. SpaceX leased the launch site in 2007 for the company's Falcon 9 rockets, but this is the first time a human spaceflight mission will launch from the pad. In 2023, teams at SpaceX built a tower, a crew access arm, and an emergency escape system for future crewed missions. The emergency system involves chutes instead of egress baskets like those used at Launch Complex 39A and B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
Hague and Gorbunov will soon board an elevator to the crew access arm, where they will walk across to the White Room for last-minute preparations before entering the spacecraft.
Liftoff remains scheduled for 1:17 p.m. EDT.
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