SpaceX Crew-1 launch: How to watch NASA’s mission to the ISS live

It is no longer a test. SpaceX seeks to make transfers of astronauts from the International Space Station a normal part of NASA operations with the Mission Crew-1 – its first crew rotation flight – this Saturday, November 14.

SpaceX Revolutionary Demo-2 mission safely delivered two NASA astronauts to the ISS in May. It was both heartbreaking and exciting as real humans tested Crew Dragon for the first time. Crew-1 will follow in the footsteps of this successful mission with a launch on a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Crew-1 will transport NASA’s Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, as well as Soichi Noguchi of the Japanese space agency JAXA, to the station for a six-month stay. The crew named the spacecraft “Resilience”.

NASA will live stream the launch starting at 12:30 p.m. PT on Saturday and provide ongoing mission coverage, including docking, opening hatches and the welcoming ceremony. Take-off is scheduled for 4:49 p.m. Pacific time. Mooring is scheduled for Sunday at 1:20 am PST.

The launch had been postponed from an earlier date due to a technical problem with some Falcon 9 rocket engines during a previous attempt to launch a US Space Force GPS satellite mission.

NASA announced that Crew Dragon was “the first new crewed spacecraft to be certified by NASA for scheduled flights with astronauts from the space shuttle nearly 40 years ago” in a statement Tuesday.

The US Air Force’s 45th Weather Squadron predicted a 60% chance of favorable weather for Saturday on Wednesday. SpaceX tweeted photos showing Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 vertically on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center.

SpaceX and Boeing are partners of NASA in the Commercial crew program, an effort to bring ISS astronaut launches back to US soil after years of relying on Russian spacecraft. Crew-1 is a defining moment in this process.

To learn more about Crew-1, here’s everything you need to know.