This week will see four astronauts blast off in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, heading to the International Space Station (ISS). The Crew-5 mission will use a Falcon 9 rocket and will launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, October 5. If you’re a fan of following along with human spaceflight news, then the launch will be livestreamed by NASA, and we’ve got the details on how to watch below.
The astronauts will travel throughout Wednesday afternoon, evening, and night on the spacecraft Endurance and are scheduled to arrive at the space station on Thursday afternoon.
What to expect from the launch
The Crew-5 mission had originally been scheduled for Monday, October 3, but this date was pushed back due to Hurricane Ian, which passed over Florida last week. The hurricane also delayed the arrival of the astronauts to Kennedy, so they arrived only yesterday.
The four astronauts traveling to the ISS are NASA’s Mission Commander Nicole Mann and Pilot Josh Cassada, plus Japanese space agency JAXA’s Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos’s Anna Kikina. This crew includes an important first, as Mann will be the first Indigenous person in space.
“I am very proud to represent Native Americans and my heritage,” Mann said at a media event. “I think it’s important to celebrate our diversity and also realize how important it is when we collaborate and unite, the incredible accomplishments that we can have.”
How to watch the launch
Coverage of the launch will begin at 8:30 a.m. ET (5:30 a.m. PT) on Wednesday, October 5 and will run throughout the launch. The launch itself is scheduled for noon ET (9 a.m. PT). You can also watch the spacecraft docking with the ISS on the following day, with docking coverage scheduled for just before 5:00 p.m. ET (2 p.m. PT) on Thursday, October 6.
To watch the livestream, you can either head to NASA’s YouTube channel or use the video embedded at the top of this page.
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