In just under 10 minutes, the nine Merlin engines of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will roar to life, sending the uncrewed Dragon spacecraft on its journey to the International Space Station for the company’s 24th commercial resupply services mission for NASA. The rocket has been fueled with liquid oxygen and RP-1 – rocket-grade kerosene and the launch sequence continues moving towards liftoff.
In the next few minutes, the Falcon 9’s engines will begin to chill in preparation for launch. At five minutes before launch, Dragon will transition to internal power – shortly after, the command flight computer will begin its final pre-launch checks. At about T-45 seconds, the SpaceX launch director will verify “go” for launch.
Liftoff is targeted for 5:07 a.m. EST.
Dragon will deliver critical materials that will support dozens of science and research investigations that will occur during Expeditions 66 and 67. To learn more about station activities, follow @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.