In just under five minutes, the SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft – carrying several important NASA investigations – will blast off aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39A. The instantaneous launch window opens at 5:07 a.m. EST.
The destination is the International Space Station, where it will dock for approximately one month. Dragon’s planned arrival is Wednesday, Dec. 22, at about 3 a.m., followed by docking about 90 minutes later. NASA astronauts Raja Chari and Thomas Marshburn will monitor operations while the spacecraft autonomously docks to the orbiting laboratory’s Harmony module.