NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barrat and Jeanette Epps and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin are making final preparations ahead of a launch to the International Space Station Saturday evening.
The four will blast off from Kennedy Space Center aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule named Endeavor. An attempt to launch early Friday was waived off due to inclimate weather in the abort zone. SpaceX and NASA are now targeting a launch attempt Saturday at 11:16 p.m. EST.
Once docked at the space station, the crew will spend about six months living and working on the ISS performing science experiments and maintenance on the orbiting lab.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson said among the experiments, this crew will investigate stem cell and cancer research.
“There are some 200 science experiments. And a lot of the stuff dreamed of in the old days is just coming to fruition,” Nelson said.
This mission will mark the ninth human spaceflight mission in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
NASA’s Steve Stich said the crew is ready to launch, and NASA is watching the weather with a sharp eye to see if there will be any delays.
“The launch weather looks really favorable for Friday mornings early launch, I would say the abort weather is what we're watching very carefully, we have to have weather along the East Coast ground track to be acceptable for launch,” Stich said. “And so, the weather right now it's not looking as favorable as we'd like.”
After the mission, the crew will board Endeavor again to return to Earth, and splash down off the Florida coast.
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