WATCH LIVE: NASA SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Go For Launch at 7:27 pm ET

By Sarah RumpfNov 15th, 2020, 7:06 pm
 

Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky.

“We are go for launch!” Those were the announcer’s jubilant words shortly before 6:30 pm ET after a final weather check was finished and a small amount of debris was removed from an air seal, clearing the way for a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to take off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, marking a historic restart of manned space flights from American soil.

The Falcon 9 rocket is carrying the SpaceX Crew-1 Dragon spacecraft, with liftoff scheduled for 7:27 pm ET. This is the first crew rotation mission to the International Space Station (ISS), as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program.

SpaceX designed the Dragon spacecraft for manned flights, but it has chiefly been used for cargo, taking everything from scientific equipment to supplies like toilet paper to the ISS, a total of 22 flights since 2012.

Sunday’s launch will be the second manned mission for the Dragon; the first was a test mission in May. On board are NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, and astronaut Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). They are scheduled to complete a six month mission on the ISS.

The spacecraft will take off from Launch Pad 39A, which was the same one used for the first ever moon landing in 1969, and 10 other Apollo missions. The majority of NASA’s launches during the Space Shuttle era were also from this launchpad. As part of their partnership, SpaceX signed a contract to lease Launch Pad 39A for the next 20 years.

The launch could still be delayed if a rainstorm pops up in the vicinity (a very real possibility in Florida weather). If the launch is scrubbed, the next window is in three days.

Watch the video above via Space X.

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Filed Under:
Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law & Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on the BBC, MSNBC, NewsNation, Fox 35 Orlando, Fox 7 Austin, The Young Turks, The Dean Obeidallah Show, and other television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe.