NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission is minutes away from liftoff at 3:22 p.m. EDT from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The crew’s displays inside the Crew Dragon spacecraft are configured for flight.
“Have an amazing flight and enjoy those views of our beautiful planet,” the SpaceX CORE said to astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley.
The crew answered, “It is absolutely our honor to be part of this huge effort to get the United States back” in the business of human spaceflight.
Here’s a look at the major milestones to come during the climb to space. (Times are shown in “L+time” – minutes and seconds after launch.)
00:00:00 Falcon 9 liftoff
+00:00:58 Max Q (moment of peak mechanical stress on the rocket)
+00:02:33 1st stage main engine cutoff (MECO)
+00:02:36 1st and 2nd stages separate
+00:02:44 2nd stage engine starts+00:07:15 1st stage entry burn
+00:08:47 2nd stage engine cutoff (SECO-1)
+00:08:52 1st stage entry burn
+00:09:22 1st stage landing
+00:12:00 Crew Dragon separates from 2nd stage
+00:12:46 Dragon nosecone open sequence begins