Astronauts arrive at Space Coast ahead of Crew-7 launch

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla – The Crew-7 astronauts arrived at Kennedy Space Center on Sunday, ahead of its planned launch to the International Space Station.

The four-person crew includes mission commander Jasmin Moghbeli, a NASA astronaut on her first spaceflight; European Space Agency astronaut and pilot Andreas Mogensen; Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa; and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov.

The Crew-7 mission is set to launch at 3:49 a.m. on Aug. 25 from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. The crew will be aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule carried by a Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Commercial Crew Program.

If needed, backup launch opportunities are available Saturday and Sunday, August 26-27.

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The astronauts will launch to the International Space Station, where they will be for about 180 days.

This will be the seventh crew rotation flight and the eighth human spaceflight mission on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station for the crew program.

After the space station is handed over to the Crew-7 team, the SpaceX Crew-6 team, which is currently on the station, will return to Earth.

NASA also held a news conference on Monday afternoon to discuss additional details about the mission.

The conference included officials on the mission, such as ISS Program Manager Joel Montalbano and SpaceX Build and Flight Reliability Vice President William Gerstenmaier.

During the conference, NASA discussed the SpaceX crew transportation system, the space station and its international partners as part of its flight readiness testing.

When the launch happens, News 6 will stream it for you live at ClickOrlando.com.

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