NASA astronauts flew to Florida ahead of Friday’s space station launch

Three NASA astronauts and their Russian copilot departed for the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday in order to prepare for an early Friday launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

In order to get ready for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket early on Friday, three NASA astronauts and their Russian cosmonaut crewmate took off for the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday. This marked the beginning of their scheduled six-month tour of duty aboard the International Space Station.

At 1:45 p.m. EST, Crew 8 captain Matthew Dominick, co-pilot Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin touched down on the 3-mile runway at the Florida spaceport after taking off from the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Barratt is the only one of his three crew members with experience from previous space missions.

Three hours after the crew of the adjacent Cape Canaveral Space Force Station arrived in Florida, SpaceX, seemingly to prove his point, launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 24 Starlink internet satellites, offering them a breathtaking preview of what was to come. Managers from NASA and SpaceX completed a flight readiness assessment a few hours later and provisionally cleared the crew for launch.

For a dress rehearsal countdown, Dominick and crew intend to spend the night Monday aboard their SpaceX Crew Dragon, "Endeavour." To prepare for the first flight of the reusable booster, SpaceX intends to test fire the Falcon 9's first stage engines a few hours later.