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NASA, SpaceX successfully launch Crew-8 after days of delays

Astronauts will focus on more than 200 science experiments at the space station

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – SpaceX and NASA’s Crew-8 mission to the International Space Station launched on Sunday evening after being scrubbed on Saturday.

The launch had originally been set for early Friday and was delayed to Saturday due to high winds forecast in the Falcon 9 rocket’s ascent corridor, or trajectory, from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39. Saturday’s launch was scrubbed for the same reason, officials said.

Sunday’s launch lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center at 10:53 p.m.

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NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, commander; Michael Barratt, pilot; and Jeanette Epps, mission specialist, will join Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, also a mission specialist, in the same SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour capsule that was used for the Demo-2, Crew-2 and Crew-6 flights, as well as Axiom Mission 1.

The four will focus on more than 200 science experiments at the space station, including studies of motion sickness and human movement in microgravity, according to NASA.

After stage separation, the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage will attempt to touch down at Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.


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