SpaceX and NASA are Targeting This Evening (March 3rd) for Crew-8 Astronaut Launch

(Merritt Island, Florida) [SpaceX)[https://www.spacex.com/) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are targeting this evening (March 3rd) at 10.53pm EST for Falcon 9’s launch of Dragon’s eighth operational human spaceflight mission, Crew-8, to the International Space Station (ISS) from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida; there is currently an 85% chance of good weather for the launch, according to a post on X at 8.12pm EST from SpaceX’s account, @spacex.

Photo of SpaceX’s Dragon poised for liftoff carrying Crew-8 to the International Space Station (ISS) at 11.16pm EST last night (March 2nd), coutresy of Ben Cooper on Instagram, @launchphoto.

At 8.25pm EST, the @spacex X account posted that "the crew’s seats are rotated in position for liftoff, and both suit leak and comms checks are complete," along with a video of the crew in liftoff position. A live webcast of the mission will begin on SpaceX’s X account about one hour prior to launch.

The Dragon spacecraft supporting the Crew-8 mission previously flew the Demo-2, Crew-2, Ax-1, and Crew-6 missions to and from the ISS. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, according to SpaceX.

Onboard Dragon will be a crew of three NASA astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut, who will initiate a six-month mission to the ISS and relieve their colleagues of SpaceX’s Crew-7 mission. Crew-8 is comprised of the mission’s commander, Matthew Dominick, a U.S. Navy pilot and member of NASA’s 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class; the mission’s pilot, Michael Barrett, a Board certified Internal and Aerospace Medicine practitioner who has previously spent a total of 212 days in space across two spaceflights; Mission Specialist Jeannette Epps, a former CIA agent who was selected by NASA as an astronaut in 2009; and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin.

The four astronauts of SpaceX and NASA’s Crew-8 mission pose for a crew photo on the access arm to their Dragon spacecraft ahead of a planned March 1, 2024 launch from NASA’s Pad 39A of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Image credit: SpaceX via Space.com.

Tonight’s planned mission will mark NASA and SpaceX’s 30th resupply mission to launch experiments from the ISS.

During their time on the orbiting laboratory, the crew will conduct more than 200 scientific experiments and technology demonstrations, including "new research to prepare human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and benefit humanity on Earth," per SpaceX’s website. Planned tests will include those of technologies to monitor sea ice, automate 3D mapping, create nanoparticle solar cells and uncover the molecular changes involved in plants exposed to spaceflight stressors in order to develop an understanding of photosynthesis in space.

Liftoff for the Crew-8 mission is currently set for an instantaneous launch window at 10.53pm EST (0353 GMT); an ‘instantaneous window’ means that SpaceX must only launch at its exact target time in order to reach the ISS on time.

Photo of the Crew-8 astronauts in front of NASA’s Gulfstream GV airplane post- arriving at the Kennedy Space Center on Monday, Feb. 26th and ahead of their launch to the International Space Station, courtesy of John Krauss on Instagram, @johnkraussphotos.

Previously, SpaceX was targeting a Crew-8 launch just after midnight on March 1st, with the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron forecasting an 85% chance of good weather at launch time, but the launch was delayed first to late yesterday (March 2nd) due to unfavorable offshore weather, and again delayed another day for a similar reason, per Space.com.