NASA and SpaceX aiming to launch astronauts to ISS tonight

NASA and Space are about to to launch four more astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

The mission is scheduled to get underway from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 3:50 a.m. ET (12:50 a.m. PT) on Friday morning.

The early stages of the flight will be live streamed using multiple cameras, with real-time audio feeds from Mission Control and the crew capsule also part of the broadcast.

Just minutes after it powers the capsule to space, viewers can also enjoy the always-remarkable spectacle of the reusable first-stage booster returning to Earth. While it usually lands on a droneship off the coast of Florida, tonight it will be touching down at Landing Zone 1 close to the launch site.

Here’s everything you need to know to watch the live stream.

After reaching the space station on Saturday, the astronauts — NASA’s Jasmin Moghbeli, the European Space Agency’s Andreas Mogensen, Satoshi Furukawa of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Konstantin Borisov of Roscosmos — will spend the next six months conducting science and technology demonstrations that could benefit humanity on Earth, and also preparing for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft supporting the Crew-7 mission previously flew NASA’s Crew-3 and Crew-5 missions to and from the ISS.

If the countdown fails to proceed as planned on Friday morning, the launch team has another window of opportunity at 3:27 a.m. ET (12:27 a.m. PT) on Saturday, August 26.

Be sure to check SpaceX’s social feeds in case of any last-minute changes to Crew-7’s launch time.

To learn more about everyday life on the orbital outpost 250 miles above Earth, check out these revealing videos made by visiting astronauts over the years.

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