![]() "This is what I've dreamed of since I was a little girl. "I truly can't believe this adventure is almost over," Moghbeli, a veteran Marine helicopter pilot, posted on social media. 25.Īfter a week-long handover period to help familiarize the Crew 8 fliers with the ins and outs of station operations, Moghbeli, Mogensen, Furukawa and Borisov will undock March 8 and return to Earth, splashing down off the coast of Florida to wrap up a 196-day mission. Standing by to welcome them aboard will be Soyuz crewmates Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara, who were launched to the station last September.Īlso on board the space station: Crew 7 commander Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japanese flier Satoshi Furukawa and cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, launched from the Kennedy Space Center last Aug. After looping up to a point directly in front of the outpost, Endeavour will press in for docking at the lab's forward port at 7 a.m. Once in space, Dominick and Barratt will monitor a series of autonomously executed thruster firings to catch up with the space station early Saturday, moving in from behind and below. The SpaceX Crew Dragon "Endeavour" is attached to the upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket in preparation for launch early Friday from historic pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. That's the moment Earth's rotation will carry the pad into the plane of the space station's orbit to enable a rendezvous. A few hours later, SpaceX plans to test fire the Falcon 9's first stage engines to clear the way for the reusable booster's first flight.Īssuming the tests go well and the weather cooperates, the crew will strap in for real Thursday night and blast off from historic pad 39A at 12:04 a.m. At the end of the review, everybody pulled 'go.'"ĭominick and company plan to strap in aboard their SpaceX Crew Dragon - "Endeavour" - overnight Monday for a dress rehearsal countdown. We talked about the readiness of the crew and space station. We talked about some of the technical items on the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon spacecraft. "Throughout that time, safely launching and returning our crew members has been a critical priority. "It's hard to believe that it's been 25 years since we launched the first hardware for the International Space Station and that we've had crews up there for more than 23 years," said Ken Bowersox, a former shuttle commander and now chief of NASA's human spaceflight program. It's an incredible time to be involved in spaceflight." "Wow, it's great to be at the Cape!" Dominick said from the runway. Left to right: Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, NASA physician-astronaut Mike Barratt, commander Matthew Dominick and Jeanette Epps. The Crew 8 astronauts, moments after arrival at the Kennedy Space Center to prepare for launch to the International Space Station. Barratt is a veteran of two previous space flights while his three crewmates are rookies. ![]() ![]() Three NASA astronauts and their Russian cosmonaut crewmate flew to the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday to prepare for launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket early Friday, kicking off a planned six-month tour of duty aboard the International Space Station.įlying in from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Crew 8 commander Matthew Dominick, co-pilot Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin landed at the Florida spaceport's 3-mile-long runway at 1:45 p.m.
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