You. And you're
looking live, going in a circle around Launch
Complex 39 A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
As we await the launch of NASA and SpaceX's crew ten.
Hey, it's March 14th, Pi Day,
and we are ready to fly away.
I am left on the clock and started.
On. And I built my.
Mom and.
Everything right here.
My quality.
We got coffee on the ground.
New possibilities are opening up for scientific cooperation between countries.
You want to have
with the American Dream.
Early phases.
Discovery clears the house
discovery.
No wonder I love coming right here.
Go for the morning,
everybody.
Can I be it?
Amen.
We are headed back to bed to get where we are today.
Good afternoon,
and welcome to America's Spaceport here in Florida.
This is a live look at Launch Pad 39 today at the Kennedy Space Center,
where crew ten is in the process of suiting up for their mission.
The second attempt.
Today's T0 is 7:03 p.m.
Eastern Daylight Time.
That's when a Dragon spacecraft sitting on top of a SpaceX
Falcon rocket will launch them to the International Space Station.
But as you can see now, live on your screen.
Crew ten is getting suited up, ready to go
to continue their regular crewed flights from U.S.
soil to station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.
Hello and good afternoon.
I'm NASA's Daryl Neil, and this is the official launch broadcast of crew ten.
And with me again on this second launch attempt to help commentate
to what's happening this morning is NASA astronaut Jessica Meir.
It is so good to have you back.
Thank you. Daryl. It's a lot of fun.
This is a nice wet second go after our dry run dress rehearsal the other day.
So we're all excited to get this rocket off the ground today.
Crew ten got practice.
We got practice.
The production team got practice. And?
And we're going to be even better than we were before, right?
Absolutely.
Well, the mission today we are flying NASA astronaut commander Anne McClain,
NASA astronaut pilot Nicole Ayres, Jax,
astronaut mission specialist Tika Onishi, and Roscosmos
cosmonaut mission specialist Career Kirill Peskov.
Today, the crew's ride to space is the Dragon Endurance spacecraft,
its fourth flight to space and all four previous.
Well, including this one, we'll have carried crews for NASA.
And what are your favorite spacecraft?
Right?
Yes. Endurance is one of my favorite dragon names.
And this is because of the affiliation with Shackleton's Imperial
Antarctic Expedition.
So endurance was the ship that Ernest Shackleton used in that spectacular
voyage.
I love reliving these accounts of these early Antarctic explorers.
Talk about some brave individuals endurance actually was trapped in the pack
ice in the Weddell Sea somewhere where I've actually done research.
And that was in 1915.
So a nice nod to that, to those incredible explorers.
And indeed, endurance is a very fitting name
for that ship and for the one that is flying today.
As I mentioned,
today is the second launch attempt for crew ten on Wednesday.
A little background, NASA and SpaceX stood down from the first attempt
after teams discovered a suspected pocket of air trapped inside the ground support
hydraulic system used for the clamp arm that you can see there on your screen.
It's at the very top of the rocket, holds it to the transporter erector.
Yesterday, ground support teams successfully flush that hydraulic system
and now it's ready to go for today's launch.
And so astronauts took a little bit of a break.
While they did that procedure.
Yeah.
We were talking on the broadcast the other day,
kind of wondering what they would do with this extra day off.
And I was hoping they would have some good time for some R&R.
You know, they were supposed to be in space.
So essentially they'd done everything they needed to do.
So they took a nice set.
I think they had a nice day relaxing and really accomplishing just that
without that, task list over their heads of all those last minute
things you're trying to do before you go to space,
hand over your phone, your email and all of that.
I remember that feeling well.
So I hopefully I think they had a good chance to relax yesterday.
We hope so, indeed, because it's needed.
It's a long day getting to space, and they have a very long day
ahead of them and a long trip to the ISS.
So over the next 4.5 hours, we will walk you through this detailed
pre-launch operation and show you all the action live
as it's happening from the suit up room through liftoff.
But first, let's get some quick background
on our wonderful co-host Jessica Meir in 2019.
If you didn't know, she went on a spacewalk and it was historic.
It was the 221st spacewalk for space station
assembly and the first to be conducted entirely by women.
Jessica Meir, partner with fellow astronaut Christina
Cook, to replace a battery charge discharge unit.
Two years later, Jessica took on the role of astronaut support person
for crew two, and there she is in jumpsuit number 38.
She was responsible for helping the crew with anything
they needed, including these documenting photos.
She went all the way to the launch tower.
In fact, as you see her there as the astronauts went into their spacecraft,
Meir has served
as the assistant to the chief astronaut for the commercial Crew program,
but then also most recently, she rehearsed with the Artemis two crew,
as you can see here, during an exercise at Kennedy simulating
the crew's preparations on launch day for their mission to the moon.
You had served at that time as the chief astronaut
for the Human Landing System, the program that's facilitating the build
of a lunar lander to return humans to the surface of the moon,
and having a good time there with the commander of that mission.
Yeah, that's one of the great things about this job, Daryl, is that
we are always doing different things, ranging from helping our buddies
that are about to fly to the moon to conducting our own missions.
And it's such an exciting time to be an astronaut right now.
I mean, as you can see, we have multiple programs.
We're continuing on with the International Space Station program,
continuous presence up there now for 25 years, getting ready
to launch our first astronauts to the moon next year.
So it is,
a great time where we have the opportunity to ride on many different vehicles.
There's a view of Anne McClain.
She is in her space suit.
You can see the chair she's in that's
identical to the seats that they have in the space X Dragon capsule,
and they are probably getting ready now to conduct their leak checks.
So we do this in all vehicles that we fly in, where we buckle
into our seats, we get all hooked up like we would in the vehicle,
and we pressurize the suits to make sure that they have good pressure, integrity.
So you can see Tako Nishi there.
Looks like his visors already down.
He's possibly already inflating, if not already up to full pressure there.
So we testing out all of these suits to make sure they have good integrity
before we get in the vehicle.
And let's talk a little bit about there.
You see that's fully pressurized.
What the astronauts did in the time between we first
attempted this liftoff on Wednesday to today's attempt.
And you can see there I hear that this beach house here at the Kennedy Space
Center was part of the plan.
Yeah. That is a beautiful view of the beach house.
I've been fortunate enough to have been there
a few times in my career as an astronaut, and it's really historic.
It was actually built back in 1962, I think, acquired by NASA
in 1963 at the time.
There are other houses around to it, but those actually were relocated.
I think you have some personal history with that, right? Yes, yes.
One of them was relocated, and came into possession
by my aunt, who bequeathed it to, our family.
But yes, it it was over on Ransom road.
It was sold by NASA to a family or to a previous family member.
Or I should say,
somebody who sold it to a, family member for $1,000.
Oh, what?
It cost 4000 to move it.
But look at that glorious shot right there.
It is a spectacular location that my house was moved, but this one got to stay.
Yeah. That's right.
And the astronauts now use this regularly when they have any downtime
for their missions. And we've been using it since the 60s.
So a lot of history there.
There's a lot of astronaut memorabilia in the house, but the number one thing
I think that is so amazing about it is just the tranquility that it provides.
I mean, you can see there is nothing else around.
You have the power of the Atlantic Ocean.
This gorgeous beach, the coats in between.
It is really just a great place for astronauts
to relax and enjoy planet Earth before they leave it.
And with their extra day yesterday, the crew actually got
to use the beach house.
They had some downtime there I know, and went for a run on the beach,
which is the one thing that she really wanted to do.
Oh nice.
All the crew members were there, like
with their families and loved ones, and just enjoying that special downtime.
And the weather was simply been perfect the past few days.
It's perfect for launch today, but as you can see from the shot
and props to our Kennedy Flight operations team for getting it,
it is gorgeous out there on the beach.
The water is turquoise, the sun is out.
We have a few more clouds today.
But, you know, that isn't going to cause too much of a problem.
So let's talk launch weather since we're on the topic
and for launch today, it couldn't be any better.
95% go for liftoff.
The only concern that we have is cumulus clouds.
And that's with the introduction of some moisture that came into the area
that we didn't have on Wednesday.
A little bit of influence.
We have some south, southeast flow,
so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Again, by the fact that we are 95% go
back into the shoot up room.
We are as we see and completing her pressure check.
And now she's up and on her feet.
Before the astronauts got into the suit up room, a number of things had to happen.
They had to get their medical checks.
They got a briefing from SpaceX and NASA before walking out here.
But more importantly, they had to get breakfast.
And I heard it was a delicious one.
It was an reported that they had French toast this morning,
among some other items.
I think we may even have a picture of that.
We do a test. There it is.
So I think they had a very, very delicious breakfast prior to getting out here
today.
People are very curious about what the astronauts like to eat
right before they get into a spacecraft.
So, thank you for getting us that crystal clear image.
Yeah. And last night, they had another ultimate dinner.
We talked about the one on Wednesday.
This one was, last night's was butter lemon chicken with mashed
potatoes and green beans and said it was a very delicious.
This is the food segment of our program, folks.
We appreciate you listening, man.
I'm just fully hungry. After listening all that.
And it's pie day.
I mean, dessert pie day perhaps not at all.
So this suit room where they are conducting their big checks
right now is actually pretty historic.
I think you could have seen in the previous view there,
there's a picture of an Apollo astronaut doing a pressure check
or getting ready to do one as well.
So that's one of the nice things about this quarantine facility.
The suit room is located right in that in that same building.
It's so historic and so inspiring for us as astronauts
as we get ready to embark on our mission, especially when it's your first mission
and you see the faces of all of these astronauts
going back decades and the knowing the things
that they accomplished, the barriers that they broke,
it's really inspiring to be kind of part of that lineage.
And I love that sort of tradition that we keep going, you know,
it makes it so much more special when you can connect it
to the decades of explorers that have come before you.
You know, as we always say, completely true.
We are riding on the shoulders of giants.
And you can see that throughout this room,
throughout the whole quarantine facility.
For our situational artist briefing, we're currently kind of on
to a teaser of 20 303 48 UTC 1903 48 local time.
The crew are
currently getting suited up with lead checks completed at OMC.
The advance teams at the pad opening the side hatch to prepare for crew
arrival.
Special guests are made up after
checkouts are complete and Dragon probe tanks are pressed.
Talking about and not working issues.
This time,
well, it looks great across the board for a launch in and sun.
Whether they venom
scrub the next available launch option B tomorrow, March 15th.
Procedure 52
normal is open the event of crew contingency from crew ingress to launch.
As a reminder, the launch cave system will be armed prior to promo today.
Hangar X
go and lock down at T-minus 45 minutes and last until spacecraft separation
or after the launch.
Escape system is disarmed.
All personnel are required to stay in the location until lockdown is complete. The.
MDA on countdown one to report on Dragon Health and talking.
Healthy tracking. No issues.
There's one of the photos I was talking about.
Daryl can see the historic Subaru
walking off of the moon is healthy, not tracking any injuries.
All right, let's conclude the T-minus for our situation awareness briefing.
Unless or any other questions.
And Daryl, just over Torx
head, you can see one of those photos that I was talking about.
Suit donning and checkouts complete on schedule.
The chairs have changed a little bit.
You see some pretty comfortable, La-Z-Boy type chairs, though in that photo.
It looks like Bob Crippen and John Young.
Maybe their first shuttle flight.
I mean, it would have to be, Yep.
Looks like a shuttle suit. And I think we saw an Apollo.
There was an Apollo image over, the other side of the room.
And before it runs out, it is 3:14 p.m.
Eastern Daylight Time, and it's pie time and pie day at the same time.
Just want to note that for all of our pie fans out there, happy Pie Day everybody.
314 well, it's kind of it's kind of perfect.
This is the image you were talking about.
Looks like Neil Armstrong.
Yeah, I think it's Neil Armstrong in that one.
So another iconic image.
And those are the kinds of things that really inspire you
when you're in there getting suited up yourself.
Absolutely.
Holding that, spherical helmet.
But, you know, pie plays a role in.
Right.
Everything that's circular.
I mean, big role in aerospace.
Absolutely.
Talking about fuel tanks or you're talking about cylindrical rockets.
Oh, I'm sure that all the NASA geeks
watching right now know exactly what Pi entails.
Do you count yourself among that crew?
I mean, I guess by default.
Right.
So we got a good report from the,
launch director there that you, heard, not too long ago.
Everything is running on time.
They got the advance team out of the pad.
They're, opening up the side hatch to get that ready for astronauts to ingress.
The weather, as he mentioned,
just perfect for launch.
Weather is good.
Also in the ascent corridor, an area that runs up
the eastern coast along the Atlantic.
Conditions are good.
Is there in case the dragon need to come.
Needed to come off the top of the rocket in the case of an emergency,
and then splashdown, along that ascent
corridor, trajectory.
And as we look at our crew, ten astronauts
taking their photo up inside of astronaut crew quarters, I want to remind you that,
we would like you to participate in the show again today.
And if you want to do so, just ask your question over the next 4.5 hours,
and you can get it in on ECS, Facebook, YouTube, or Twitch.
Send your question with the hashtag ask NASA.
And we look forward to looking at all
those questions and funneling them in to Jessica Meir,
who has a rich experience in spaceflight,
along with, her current training as an astronaut.
Okay, time now for the traditional card game.
It's a tradition to
try and get rid of any bad luck.
Yesterday, they played
what appeared to me to look like high low.
Just a simple card game dealt out to the astronauts
and the chief astronaut, Joe Cobb, on the left, plays it with the crew.
Yeah, I believe it was high card that they played last time.
I haven't heard that they were going to change the game,
but we're never quite sure
because they do change it for different crews and the history here.
There are a few different versions of it, but the one that I think is
probably most correct is that they play until the commander loses.
That way, we make sure that this crew gets all their bad luck out of the way.
You can see Joe Acaba is
dealing out the cards here to the crew.
There's another version
that the commander supposed to win, I guess to ensure more good luck.
But I think it's the first version and and this is nice.
Just like we were talking about earlier, the traditions that we keep up
in the astronaut office to make it a little bit,
a little bit more special, provide
that real human touch that we can all connect to.
And you can see lots of smiles going on right now.
The shuttle astronauts used to play these games all the time.
And I'm assuming this tradition maybe goes back even to the Apollo times,
but I'm not certain about that one at least.
Shuttle.
Fist bumps all around from a chief.
My guess would be that
an had a four of hearts.
And she gave that up.
And that's a pretty low card. So,
if, sounds like a loss to me, it sounds like a loss.
Yeah.
Time to go fly.
Well, you could really see it in that shot.
And, you know, seeing all their faces, that moment of levity,
you know, a break from,
you know, hitting these milestones at specified times.
You know, you have a little time that's literally on their schedule
to relax a little bit and
have, have a moment of levity with your crew and with the chief calling.
Countdown Leo seals removed and installation complete on schedule.
Coming up next for the astronauts.
They will walk out of the crew. Suit up. Room,
but they will do so at
the specified time.
While we are out at the pad,
want to talk about something that is new for this mission?
After the long duration mission is complete for crew ten,
they will be the first NASA commercial crew mission
to target a return splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
NASA and SpaceX have been working together toward the certification
and readiness for Dragon recoveries on the West Coast.
Since 2019, Dragon recoveries have primarily occurred off the Florida coast.
As you see here, SpaceX is moving Dragon recovery operations
to off the coast of California now to allow Dragon to,
complete its deorbit before safely jettison the trunk over the Pacific Ocean.
Comparable to the first 21 Dragon missions
crew splashdown locations are on the map that you see here
near Los Angeles, Oceanside, and San Diego.
The recovery vessel Shannon will be stationed in Long Beach, California
to support the new operations
to establish this capable capability.
It, not only improves public safety,
but NASA and SpaceX worked for months establishing new sites.
To do this, along with a laundry list
of other things like obtaining regulatory approvals,
performing engine assessments
and updating flight rules.
While we have a moment as we orbit
Launch Complex 39
to A with the Falcon nine rocket and endurance spacecraft on top.
Let's take a closer look at today's crew.
And let's start with NASA astronaut Anne McClain.
She is your crew ten commander, born and raised in Spokane, Washington.
NASA selected an as an astronaut candidate in 2013.
Crew ten will be her second spaceflight after launching aboard the Soyuz Soyuz Ms.
11 in 2018 and serving as flight engineer
on the International Space Station for expedition 58 and 59.
In total, she spent 204 days in space and completed
two spacewalks totaling 13 hours and eight minutes,
and is a West Point graduate and colonel in the US Army.
A highly decorated master Army aviator,
and has more than 2000 flight hours in 20 different
aircraft, and is also an avid rugby player and former
member of the USA rugby women's National team.
She currently lives in Houston, Texas with the rest of the astronauts.
The pilot for
crew ten is NASA astronaut Nicole Air's Crew ten
mission will be the first space flight for Nicole Ayres, a major in the U.S.
Air Force and the first member of NASA's 2021 astronaut class.
Named to a crew.
A graduate of the U.S.
Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Nicole served
as an instructor pilot and mission commander in the T-38 and the F-22 Raptor,
leading multinational and multi-service missions worldwide.
She has more than 1400 total flight hours,
including more than 200 in combat.
Nicole has a twin and was born in San Diego, California,
to the mission specialist, now, this will be the second mission
to the space station for Jaxa astronaut Takuya Onishi.
After launching aboard the Soyuz Ms.
oh one mission in 2016 and spending 113 days in space as a flight engineer
for expeditions 48 and 49 only, she received a Bachelor of Engineering
degree in aeronautical and space engineering from the University of Tokyo,
and soon embarked on a career in aviation with All Nippon Airways in Tokyo.
He was selected as an astronaut candidate by Jaxa
in 2009, and during his stay on the space station,
he became the first Japanese astronaut to capture the Cygnus spacecraft in space.
When he's not training, Onishi enjoys flying,
playing the saxophone movies, and hiking.
And last but certainly not least,
this is mission specialist and Roscosmos cosmonaut career.
Peskov.
It is his first trip to space
before his selection as a cosmonaut in 2018,
he was a copilot on the Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft
for Russian Airlines.
Assigned to a test cosmonaut in 2020, he has additional experience in skydiving,
zero gravity training, scuba diving,
and wilderness survival.
And as you probably noticed by me reading their bios
there, that all four we mentioned this on Wednesday
are certified pilots, military pilots
and pilots in private aviation.
And that is impressive for a crew these days.
Yeah, and it certainly is that we have all four pilots.
And I like how you highlighted that.
You know, we have two military pilots, two commercial pilots.
It's something that the crew talks a lot about.
I think it really helps them in their communications.
You know, they all already speak the same language.
And a lot of them, each of them have really remarked upon that.
It kind of gives them
this really synchronous way of communicating, and they're all all
in lockstep with each other.
I think that helps them operate very efficiently together as a team.
I know it has throughout their training, and I know that will carry over into
their vehicle and on the International Space Station as well.
Gives them even more of a kind of shared language,
you know, to to relate to each other.
And so for these four pilots, how long have they trained
together for launch and and how much training does that involved?
Well, typically we get assigned about a year and a half to two years
before the mission. Sometimes that's a little bit variable.
Sometimes the commander and pilot will get assigned first
and start a little bit earlier because they have a little bit
of additional training for the vehicle.
But about that amount of time, and that is when, you know,
we're doing everything from vehicle to space station training.
And and McClain
was talking the other day about being a pilot
and how pilots like to go over the entire aircraft before they fly,
tip to tail, walk around it, take a look at it, inspect it, kick the tires,
pull open the compartments, review the log, go over maintenance.
But that's not something that can be done, by the NASA astronaut today.
You guys rely on a support team, hundreds and hundreds of people,
if not thousands across NASA and space to get ready for this moment.
Yeah, that's a huge part of the process.
And it's something that we become accustomed
to where we get to know these teams on a personal level.
We know the people, we get to know the hardware.
And through this very intensive training regime that we have,
we develop a lot of trust in both the hardware
and the people, all the ground teams that are keeping us safe.
We know that safety is NASA and SpaceX is number one priority.
And so you develop this camaraderie with the people.
You know,
that everyone is ensuring safety and everything that you do from launch day
and really watching every minute of the day on the space station
to make sure things are operating correctly.
So, yeah, as and kind of mentioned for these pilots,
it's a little bit different where, you know, they have
they have really
put their eyes on every piece of hardware and checked it on their own.
And now they are putting they're using that trust that they have.
But thankfully to the way that we operate, the incredible relationship
that we have with the SpaceX team,
we have that level of trust and integrity between both partners.
And we know that that they will be watching all those factors,
and that's a good thing
because as an astronaut, we have so many different things.
We really have to compartmentalize our brains.
We're switching back and forth between a spacewalk training
and then doing a spacewalk, capturing a vehicle using the robotic arm,
fixing the toilet on the space station, and then doing an experiment.
So we're doing so many different things all the time.
There's no way that we can be experts, really, at any one.
And so you become this kind of dabbler, a dilettante on all of them.
And what you do is rely on all the people on the ground
to help you through that process
and make sure that everything goes as smoothly as possible.
And we appreciate all of those people who have really spent a lot of time,
long hours, weekends, nights
working to prepare this mission for launch.
We move you now to looking live outside astronaut crew quarters,
where family, friends and
some media have gathered to document crew ten
as they walk out of their living quarters
and then into their vehicles, three Teslas
all lined up with that license plate.
Yeah, I really like this tradition where the SpaceX
crews actually change the license plates for every mission.
And so it adds a little bit of levity, you know, a little bit of something
original to each one.
You can see this one, the lift off with the ten in the middle lifted off.
So that's a very appropriate message for what we're here for today.
And I think we have some history about what
all the other license plates are here too, don't we, Daryl?
We do indeed.
As you can see here, what's in a name?
These are all of the previous crew missions that flew on space,
and the license plates that they chose for their vehicles.
And as you can see, many of them worked in the number
into the phrase, which is quite clever.
But you had demo two with I.s.s.
bound crew one later, Earth Crew two each.
Each vehicle had one and it was reuse, reduce and recycle for the three vehicles.
Crew three I like crew.
Crew three send it with the three in the E
go for launch was crew four
blastoff with the number five for crew five.
Crew Dragon for crew six.
You and I did this launch by.
Yeah, that's one of my personal favorites.
You had actually corrected me during the show.
I didn't say it long enough, but you did it just there, so I appreciate that.
Crew eight.
Yay! SpaceX crew nine ready for it.
And of course, crew ten.
Lift off.
I enjoyed that.
Which one's your favorite?
I would say I'm partial to crew two because I was the astronaut support person
for that one. And also I'm quite an environmentalist at heart.
So the reduce reuse, recycle was one of my favorites.
But then the the by oh okay.
Well let us know what you folks think.
What your favorite, license plate is.
And remember you can also ask Jessica questions.
Hashtag ask NASA.
Send it in to our platforms on Twitch,
Facebook, YouTube and X.
And as a matter of fact, we have a question for you right now.
So let's take it.
Pablo Museum asks each
astronaut must have a personal routine before a launch to scrubs.
Make them rethink it.
Make little adjustments, order a different meal after alter the playlist.
Or do they faithfully stick to their pre-launch routine?
Kind of a nod to like, you know, I think of athletes and baseball players
who have a very specific routine because many of them are, you know,
worried about things like that.
Yeah, well, I have the Lucky Charms, so. So to speak.
Yeah.
Pablo, I think that it really does depend on the individual,
but I think probably more than likely
most people stick to that tradition as Daryl was just kind of mentioning,
you get a little bit superstitious about that.
I know that's something that I really did all through the last 12 years of trading.
I eat the same thing the night before I do trading in the space,
really very recently, I guess I've become sort of old and crotchety, but I started
I sometimes don't do it anymore, but I was always religious about it.
So I think probably they're sticking
to those traditions, probably not changing the playlist
or anything like that
though, as we did mentioned, they did have a different meal before
they had that butter lemon chicken last night,
whereas before Wednesday's attempt they had fajitas.
So steak for heat is right I think.
So they think they might have a mixture.
But yeah.
So you know, it depends on the individual.
I would say more than likely they're keeping most of the same traditions.
Great question.
And thank you for sending that.
Pablo.
We've got another one.
And I'm
going to apologize in advance if I get this name wrong.
But an ode to lucky asks.
I know that the astronauts are
in excellent health, but has there ever been research done
with someone who is in not perfect health
to see how zero gravity affects different diseases?
Yeah. Good question.
I mean, generally we do need to be in good health.
That's very important to the mission since we wouldn't have direct access to
medical,
all the medical resources or a hospital, you know, if something happened,
though, we are very adequately staffed on the International Space Station
in terms of supplies that we have for any medical emergency
and the fact that you're really not that far away from home.
So you could be on Earth
back in a, in a few hours if you had a, a major medical situation.
Of course, that will be the, the, the same when we go back to the moon and to Mars.
And so that's what we need to think about
being a little bit more autonomous, but about studying different diseases.
That is something that we do all the time on the International Space Station,
not directly through an unhealthy astronaut or person,
but with a whole suite of biologic, biological, physiological
and medical experiments
that is designed precisely to understand more about disease states.
Back on Earth, for example, there are a lot of parallels with osteoporosis
or muscle wasting diseases on Earth with processes that happen in space.
And really what happens it's space is kind of
like an accelerated aging model.
So we can study bone cells, we can study muscle cells,
we can study our cardiovascular physiology on board
and get that data to use not only just for the future
of astronauts in space,
but also with all of these disease applications that are really direct,
in many cases, back to help improve the lives of patients back down on Earth.
Well, I was excited to go
to space until you said it accelerates aging.
But I had heard that, and I thought that was interesting.
Temporarily. Yeah, it depends on the system.
And it depends on the effect.
But for example, one of the experiments
that I participated in when I was there, there it was called, Vascular Echo.
And there's a follow on vascular aging.
And it's looking at blood vessels in the human body.
We use the ultrasound on board the station to look at
what's happening in these blood vessels.
And what was found on some of these previous studies is that the blood
vessels actually get thicker and stiffer the walls of the blood vessels,
equivalent to about 10 to 20 years of aging in only a six month time period.
So really important that we understand these kinds of things and start,
unraveling the mechanism behind it so that we can keep astronauts healthy.
But then,
as we just mentioned, a lot of corollaries to aging back down on Earth as well.
You're looking live now down the hallway towards astronaut crew quarters
and the suit up room where the astronauts
will turn the corner, walk that hallway, get into an elevator,
go down to the ground
floor and pop out those doors
before walking to their vehicles
and having a few minutes of time
to spend with the people who have gathered there.
Special guests, VIPs, family
members, loved ones, and the press.
And we can see in the middle of the screen.
I do believe we have our acting administrator, Janet Petro, there.
Yeah, I see Vanessa as well.
She was more but very recently the director of the Johnson Space Center,
and now she's the deputy for the administrator.
Yes, there is, Vanessa
on the right side of the screen
and Janet Petro
currently blocked by the fellow there in the blue suit,
but Kelvin Manning, I see him in his crew ten shirt and her crew ten cap, rather.
Yeah.
He's acting director of KSC, right?
That's right where we are, Kelvin.
Great guy.
Interacts with us as crew members quite regularly whenever we're out here.
I think we saw Cassie Swales there as well.
She's a NASA deputy associate administrator.
And they are all right down there.
That's a wider view outside the U.
Shaped, own.
See, as we call it, operations.
And check out building.
The caravan departs from this location.
You can see towards the back and at the top of your screen, the Swat vehicles,
the three astronaut vehicles.
And then at the front, security gives them an escort
across the Kennedy Space Center.
It's about a 20 minute drive to the launch pad.
We've got some folks also here
visiting as part of NASA's social program.
There they are waving.
I think they turned around and waved.
But a great group of folks here
who are social influencers who have come to document countdown advanced.
Hey, we're complete, ready for crew arrival,
commencing crew walkout and I would see departure.
And here they come
walking down the hallway.
Crew ten.
Leaving the astronaut
crew quarters going into the elevator
amidst some applause and revelry.
That was astronaut Chow Lindgren just on the other side of the elevator door.
He is the acting director of the Flight Operations Directorate.
So that's the directorate that resides above the astronaut office, the flight
director office.
All the flight controllers and shell actually flew on Dragon as well.
Himself back on crew for he did indeed.
And he and his fellow crewmates all came out to Kennedy,
some time after their launch.
And did a meet and greet with, everybody who works out here.
And it was really, a special time to,
get close to the astronauts, ask them questions,
take pictures for the people who support,
the launch operations here at the Kennedy Space Center.
I know that meant a lot to the people who went out and saw crew
for when they visited here.
As you look here at the
doors and see all the patches
around the frame there
from the various missions that have, most recently been done,
we have the mission signing for crew ten.
That was Anne McClain.
And here's Nicole Ayres.
Tokyo Nishi and Kirill Peskov.
Yeah, I think that happened last Friday.
And from that image you saw outside the crew ten patch was actually
the bottom left in that image you'll see when they come through the doors.
That sticker was placed on Tuesday evening by Anna Nicole.
You can see the bottom left over there.
But another great tradition because you can see all the stickers there is.
There's certainly way more mission stickers than we've had Dragon missions,
and that's because we see all the historical ones as well.
Loads of shuttle mission patches there.
And another one of these great, these strong traditions
that really bond us as astronauts and really add another element of you
of what makes a the things that we do unique and makes us all connected.
Jessica, when
you eventually fly, I dare you to put one
right there smack dab in the middle of the NASA meatball.
Okay. Challenge accepted. Darrell.
Challenge accepted.
Oh, right.
There you can see Hayley aspires.
And Katie O'Neil walking out gave a little fist bump there
getting ready to pump up the crowd.
They are SpaceX employees that really are the key
liaison for SpaceX with all of the things that astronauts do.
So two incredible women that we know very, very well in the astronaut Office
that, are really essential to all of the space
operations.
And we are getting close
less than 90s before walkout.
Officially happens
at t -three hours and 20 minutes.
So, among the crowd you.
We mentioned some of the VIPs earlier, and then we have, you know,
a few loved ones there as well to see the crew.
So that last moment to wave,
to your spouse, to your kids, to whomever you have, they're supporting with you.
And, another special moment
right before you get into those vehicles and make your way to the launchpad.
It was interesting.
And here they come.
Crew ten taking their first steps outside
as they prepare for their journey to the International Space Station.
From left to right, corral Peskov,
Nicole Ayres and McClain
and Takuya Onishi.
Well, this is the second time
they've done this. So.
When you do something
a second time, does it have the same feeling?
Yeah.
You know, I think it's actually probably
a little bit better for them because some of those nerves have gone.
They've kind of gone through it already the first time.
And so I think they're probably a little bit more relaxed, but
still feeling all of that excitement and exhilaration for a launch day.
So I'd say it's
probably the best of all worlds took, you know, really combined those things.
You know, once you've been through something before,
you have a little bit less anxiety about it, right?
Like, you know what to expect and it just makes you
a little bit more calm and at ease.
So my guess is that's what they're feeling today.
Well, a relaxed crew
is the kind of crew you want to have on launch day.
Absolutely.
You can see the big smiles on all of their faces as they're
looking out toward their loved ones, their families, friends, colleagues.
I imagine
the conversation is a little different than it was on Wednesday.
Right?
Because you said your, you know, your favorite goodbye words.
And now.
Goodbye again.
Yeah.
There's.
Yeah.
So you you probably had a pretty good view of the crew there when they came out.
And I don't know if you noticed the height distinction between the crew, but,
you know, and McClain is actually certainly not a short woman.
She's taller than an average female.
I think she's five, seven, maybe a little bit more than that.
But at her crew, she's actually the short one.
If you noticed, her crew is exceptional tall.
So they actually made an unofficial logo, which I love,
and it has all the three crew members as giraffes
and the fourth crew member of and as the panda on the crew.
Here's a picture of that shirt actually modeled by my husband
with your daughter watching.
Yes, sir. Yes, she was observing.
I think her favorites, the panda as well,
because that's, a childhood favorite of mine.
Perfect for my classmate.
And oh, there it is, the four crew members.
And there the panda with her callsign animal.
And I'm all.
Yeah, that callsign was bestowed on her from her old
rugby team, the Atlanta Harlequins.
She played with them when she was in flight school.
Doors are closing,
getting ready to blast their playlist, so I assume it's one of the cool aspects.
I remember when I was the astronaut support person actually riding in the car
with the crew back on crew to get to participate in that.
They're blasting their
personally designed playlists with some, you know, real pump up music for them.
The lights are blaring on the escort cars, and it's a it's
a really exhilarating time. Did you rock out?
Oh, yeah. Certainly got to get pumped up.
That launch was actually at night, which I think allows you
to get even more pumped up with the lights and the music in the darkness.
But beautiful weather day for what we're doing today.
Can't complain.
You know, speaking of the weather, Daryl, I'm
glad we have such a sunny day because on that walk out.
Not sure if you knew about this, but Nicole Ayres
callsign vapor, she is actually very anti
umbrella stemming back to her days in the Air Force.
It's a I guess it's an air air and Air Force flight.
An Air Force jet pilot thing where they're too tough for umbrella.
So they have to really stick it out no matter what the conditions are at.
Apparently, vapor is very religious about this.
Even, you know, no matter what, when, where she is,
even if she's off duty, she will not use an umbrella.
Some people say that this also carries over to all the military branches.
But I talked to some Navy pilots last night and they say, no way.
Like certainly not.
They they use umbrellas and even and told me today
that she wasn't even aware at all about this thing about umbrellas.
So, you know, I think it's really just a vapor, at least on this crew.
I definitely.
And in an Air Force thing,
which is interesting because the the closeout technicians
have umbrellas with them when there is a little bit of rain or mist in the air. And
so they and their job is to immediately cover and keep those suits dry.
So I would be curious to see what.
Nicole. Yeah, you got to protect that suit.
And that's exactly what I mean.
It's good thing we have no rain today
because I don't know what vapor would have done. All right.
Right.
Well, this was a nice moment here where the family and loved ones
got to come up close to the open window of the vehicles.
As they are just minutes away from leaving and departing the OMC.
And the first vehicle you've got, the closeout lead and two suit
technicians, and the second one, the commander and pilot,
along with a flight surgeon.
And in the third, the two mission specialists,
they're getting a wave out the window as they drive
off. And.
Here they go on
countdown crew have left the OMC on the way to the pad.
We're on schedule
and we are off the crew
on their way to Space Launch pad 39 a
driving away from the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building.
This begins the 20 minute drive with a full security escort across
NASA's Kennedy Space Center, including.
They'll get ready to do a drive by the VAB.
As we all know.
You know, I think once we see them get going on the other road
here, they're going to get up to like 65mph or so, which I think they're
they're cruising along and and pretty close proximity to each other.
That's more than the posted speed limit.
I just wish I know special day.
Absolutely I know we we don't really speed when we drive here at KSC.
Right. You're 231 pulled over.
But this is a special you'll see that guy on your tail,
I'm sure, and loves the helicopter escort as well.
You know, she's a helicopter pilot.
So sweet. Sounds of home.
And as they get up to speed here, I bet she's really jamming out, you know?
And mom told me that back in high school and accumulated
so many speeding tickets that she almost had to do some defensive driving.
So she has a need for speed.
Spilling the tea on the commander.
I like it.
Speaking of van,
let's find out more about her in her own words.
Here.
Now, Commander Anne McClain.
When I get asked why we explore, oftentimes
I think, what would our society look like if we didn't explore?
What would our society look like
if we didn't ask what was over the next hill, what was across that ocean?
And for us now what's beyond our planet?
My name is Colonel Anne McClain, and I'm the commander of NASA's
SpaceX crew ten mission to the International Space Station.
I was three years old when I first told my family
that I wanted to become an astronaut, and I'm fortunate
that no one of my family told me that it wasn't possible to do.
They all said, that's going to be a lot of work.
And they were right, but they were ready to support me every step of the way.
They reminded me of my dreams.
If I started to get discouraged because it is a long and challenging road.
One thing
I knew about becoming an astronaut is that not a lot of people get to do it.
It was important to me to choose a career that I was going to love and be fulfilled
in, regardless of my selection to becoming an astronaut.
So I chose to serve my country
as a helicopter pilot and an officer in the United States Army.
I still am an active duty officer in the Army.
It's something that brings me a lot of meaning
to be able to serve the American people in that manner,
and it's something that I would be doing still every day
if I was not fortunate enough to wear this blue suit.
This is my second flight to the International Space Station.
I think on your first flight, there's a lot of unknowns, right?
You don't know how it's going to feel to go to space.
You're very focused on making sure that you know your stuff on this flight.
As the commander, I'm really focused on building a cohesive crew.
So over the last year and a half, I've had the pleasure of working
with my crewmates on crew ten talk, Nicole and Caryl.
We've shared a lot of meals together,
we've traveled together, we've done some tough sims together,
and they are three very special people to me.
And now we get to go launch to space and do this incredible mission
with our good friends.
The International Space Station is a proving ground
for a lot of technologies for deep space exploration, but it is also
a national orbiting laboratory where the U.S.
can work with universities, research labs, other countries
to develop things that benefit us on Earth, everywhere from cancer
research, Parkinson's research, materials research.
And at the same time, we're looking at the things that we're going to use on Mars.
And future moon missions.
In my career at NASA, and especially on my first spaceflight,
there were certain moments that I had, like when I came out of the hatch
on my first spacewalk, where I realized we are operating
at the edge of what humans are capable of, and that is such a special moment.
I think it's that intersection of the magical
and the technical, where I can look across the amazing beauty of the earth,
but I can see also this amazing creation, the International Space Station,
and it doesn't belong to me or to NASA anymore,
that it belongs to every single human on earth.
It's our platform to figure out how we got here,
where are we going in the future, and the context in which we live?
Our goal is to be a beacon of hope for all of humankind,
so that people can look and say, this is what we can accomplish
when we work together.
The next member of crew ten
we'd like to hear from now is pilot Nicole Ayres.
Space exploration is so important for humanity.
You know, we learn so much as we get further away from Earth.
Every time that we make a further step, we learn something
and we learn how to adapt. And that is so important to humanity.
We are explorers.
Each and every single one of us.
My name is Major Nicole Vaporizers, and I am the pilot on NASA's SpaceX
crew ten mission to the International Space Station.
As a little kid, I always wanted to be an astronaut
from the time that I was about knee high.
Growing up in Colorado really inspired me to go explore.
I loved exploring in the mountains and learning how to camp
and hike and live in a weird and exciting environment.
Growing up as a twin is probably my favorite part of growing up.
You have this built in best friend to get in trouble with to go exploring with.
We grew up right there in Carter Springs.
We got to see the Thunderbirds fly over the Air Force Academy every year,
which really inspired me to become a pilot in the Air Force.
But I always had an affinity for the sky and for space.
Being next to the Air Force Academy kind of was the natural path for me.
So I was a very serious little kid who set my goals really
high and worked really hard and never got bumped off that path.
I got my wings in August of 2014 and then I flew F-22s and Alaska.
I got to do some great flying up there in the mountains.
I had no notice.
Six and a half month deployment from there is when I moved down to Houston
to start my job as an astronaut.
Crew ten is a group of pilots
who are going to space together to execute science and maintenance.
We are about to launch to the International Space Station for a six
month rotation aboard the orbiting laboratory.
I've got a great group of humans who are funny and caring and kind
and also wicked smart and capable and efficient.
Our major goal is to get to the space station
and execute the mission as well as we possibly can,
and then come home still funny and kind and caring about each other.
Doing science in space is so important because here on Earth there's gravity
and it's a force that holds things down, and in space we can remove that force.
And so are we.
Going a glimpse into processes
and forces and structures that are too small or too weak,
and they can't actually flourish here on Earth.
Long duration spaceflight is so important for human research
to figure out how humans adapt and what happens to your body.
And in microgravity, we get to learn how hardware and plants
react in space, and we get to put them in this environment.
That's pretty harsh.
You know, we're outside of the atmosphere,
and now we don't have the protection of the atmosphere.
What happens to those things
and how do we fix them and how do we better prepare our people,
our hardware, our food, our water systems for that deep space exploration?
Throughout all of our training, it's been apparent to me
that there is a mass of humanity that gets us to space.
It takes a village to get us there.
The International Space Station
wouldn't be where it is today without the international cooperation,
and it's just blown me away with how many people it takes to get to space.
From crew ten, we
just want to say thank you.
And you see them passing in the VAB now
where we just had a big major milestone in the NASA Artemis program.
Engineers finished stacking the twin solid rocket boosters
on the inside of that very building that you see there for
Artemis two.
The big rocket doors there
and there you have the view of those twin solid rocket
boosters, 177ft tall.
They provide most of the 8.8 million pounds of
thrust needed to launch four astronauts on a ten day lunar journey.
Since November, crews
have used a massive crane to lift and assemble ten booster segments,
each packed with avionics and motors that will safely detach after launch.
With the boosters now complete, the focus shifts to integrating the SLS core stage.
In the coming weeks, Artemis two will carry
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Cook,
along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a mission around the moon.
And now here is Jeremy there in the back
with an update about a recent training mission
for him and his fellow Artemis two crewmates.
Hey, everyone.
I'm Canadian space Agency astronaut Colonel Jeremy
Hansen, mission specialist for the Artemis two mission.
I'm here at the Johnson
Space Center here in Houston, Texas, where we normally do most of our training.
But every once in a while, we'd like to change it up a bit.
Read.
Victor Christin and I recently spent several days in Iceland
training in our spacesuits for hiking gear to study its geology and surroundings.
Why Iceland?
Well, as you can see, it has a similar landscape
and terrain to the moon, with various volcanic rocks like basalts
and branches, and has limited to no vegetation.
The Nordic island has been a lunar training site
for NASA astronauts since the days of the Apollo missions.
My crew mates
and I teamed up with scientists and geology experts to explore the huge
boulders, formations and volcanic craters across the lava fields.
During our journey, we stopped at various spots to discuss what we observed.
Some of the really fine material is compacting into
what's like the glue holding this together,
and even tested different types of tools to collect rock samples.
Although we won't be landing on the moon during our mission,
this fieldwork and navigation practice will allow us
to make informed observations when passing the lunar surface
and pave the way for future Artemis crew training.
And that's your Artemis moon minute.
For more Artemis updates.
Scan the QR code on your screen that you see right here.
There it is.
Scan that QR code or visit nasa.gov/artemis
two to get the latest updates.
As we get escorted across the Kennedy
Space Center.
Security leading the way.
There they go.
They're up to top speed now.
I bet
you have a little construction there coming up on, but,
and it's a two way road, but there's no problem there.
They've already pre cleared it for them to go by another interesting note
that we get to see when we have a daylight launch is those crawler
tracks that you see just to the top of the screen.
You know those two rock bedded crawler tracks.
That's where, the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft
will slowly march its way out to the launchpad.
The giant crawler transporter.
It, you know, there's river rock down there,
just a massive track of river rock that allows.
There's a great shot of it that allows the crawler transporter, to carry
many, many millions of pounds of, Artemus hardware out to the pad.
Special rock to.
I think it's from Tennessee or something.
It is. It is riverbed of, Tennessee.
It's, known for its qualities of low friction.
So it doesn't spark or build up heat
as much as some other rock.
So it was chosen for that very reason.
Nice job.
Luckily, no alligators out on the road today
because that does happen from time to time.
It does indeed.
Alligators, wild boar.
And this is always my favorite.
You have a rocket in your front windshield.
Say, hey,
I'm getting ready to fly on that.
There it is.
There it is, guys. There's our ride.
Yeah, definitely an exhilarating feeling right now as they're coming up
that incline within view of their rocket.
It's getting real right now, Daryl.
Yep, yep.
It's getting real again.
I get again, you know, like you said, more clouds today.
But they're really gorgeous in that that image that we just had there aren't they
make for some spectacular photos I think of a lift off.
Absolutely.
No. We have lots of press out here.
Very talented,
photographers who document
the launch and current countdown crew have arrived at the pad on schedule.
I'm always amazed at, how they're able to incorporate
the environment around the rocket as it's flying, whether it be a moon or
a cloud.
They do a great job.
We enjoy their imagery.
Let's pick back up with,
finding out our crew, learning about them firsthand.
Up next is Jaxa astronaut and mission specialist Taku U.
Onishi.
He is one of the crew ten mission specialists.
When people are born, they naturally want to explore the, environment.
That's how we expand our Lord.
That's how we find something new.
Advanced our technology and civilization.
My name is stuck on the ship, and I am a mission specialist for NASA's
space X crewed mission to the International Space Station.
I was born in Tokyo in Japan,
and I grew up mostly in the west part of Japan.
My family moved our locations
so often, so that experience actually helped me to get used
to a new environment quickly and comfortably.
I have always been interested in space
since my childhood, but I never thought
I would actually become an astronaut.
I chose to become a pilot.
I think I was very lucky because the experiences
as a pilot of a commercial airplane
really helped me to go through astronaut selection process.
Space is
hard, very challenging, sometimes unpredictable,
and there is no 100% guarantee of success.
And that's why I think cooperation is the key to success.
Each country, each crew member, each agency, each company
brings its own expertise and its strengths
in order to be able to cooperate as a team.
And I hope our crew to mission becomes
one of the best models of that cooperation.
We have been training together for more than a year.
I believe we can be very successful in our goals
and build a closer friendship among all of us.
And of course, most importantly, we have a lot of fun together.
While we are on both the ISS, we are going to perform
a lot of scientific experiments, including some medical experiments,
to better understand our bodies and for future space exploration.
Our ultimate goal is to go to Mars.
But it's not an easy journey.
And when we face a new challenge, we must solve it step by step.
Continue pushing the boundaries of possibility
makes us gain new skills and also enhance our experiences.
What I like about the International Station
program is each country brings its own strengths.
Is like a patchwork quilt.
Each country is just one patch.
Putting all the patches together creates one beautiful quilt
that is i.s.s..
And now our other mission specialist,
Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.
I think that we explore because it's
a really deep part of our nature.
This is one of my things that makes us humans.
My name is Kirill Peskov.
I am a mission specialist for NASA's
space excursion mission to the International Space Station.
I grew up in a Siberian town called Nasarawa.
It's in the middle of Russia, in the middle of Siberia.
But I decided to be a pilot, actually, this was my dream.
During my childhood and after becoming a pilot, I realized
that it's not a limit and we can go higher and further.
So I started to work towards becoming a cosmonaut.
And now I'm standing here.
Our crew is great.
I love the fact about our crew that all four of us are pilots.
I think that it helps us to understand each other really well.
Sometimes even without saying a word.
Every day we learn something new about each other.
The training itself is this is the thing which brings us closer.
We do science and space because it's an environment
that cannot be created on the ground, and it helps us
to develop all kinds of materials, medicines.
It helps us to push our knowledge forward.
I think doing research
is not only on station, but every way, somewhere deep inside in human nature.
And this hunger for exploration, this is the one of the main things
which drives us forward and helps us to survive as a species.
I think it's hard to
overestimate the value of international cooperation and space exploration,
because it takes much time and effort, represented by how much money spent
for space exploration.
So like more people and more ideas, we have faster
the exploration goals and, safer and better our life on earth becomes.
I love the space exploration because it's the endless process.
When I became a cosmonaut, I was surprised how big this team is.
The team who makes this flights possible just like thousands of millions of people.
And, what I would say is to say thank you not only for,
aerospace industries, industry agencies, but also for all the people
who are involved in creating something and in different kinds of research.
You are making world better.
Back live now at the launchpad
as your commander and pilot walked towards the elevator
after taking a look at their rocket for the second time.
Heading up the launch tower.
Getting into that special elevator and I'm not sure.
I'm guessing it may be.
And we'll get to push that button,
but it's the best button in the elevator because it says space.
No floor number, just space.
And today, she means it.
Yeah.
I always love that image of the crew members
leaning back and looking up at their rocket,
really appreciating the gravity of what they're about to do.
And how tremendously powerful that rocket is there in front of them.
The elevator will take them
almost several hundred feet up the launch tower,
and they'll pop out right there, and then they'll have to walk
a couple flights of
stairs to get to the very top where the crew access are.
Of course, this is historic hardware here.
This launch infrastructure as the elevator doors open.
That was a fast ride.
There they are.
A little wave from man McClain.
Almost at the rocket.
Still some stairs to climb. That's right.
The last climb.
We talk about how this, you know, was a launch tower
that went all the way back to Apollo and through shuttle.
So that's why this, you know, slight modification, where the elevator doesn't
quite go to the spot of this taller rocket where the spacecraft is
and where the door and the hatch are.
But a lot of history at these pads, both 39 A and 39 B.
Kicking off in the
70s with, a historic launch,
Apollo-Soyuz, that led to cooperation
for the very place where they're going today, the International Space Station.
International cooperation. Yeah. That's right. Apollo-Soyuz.
The 50th anniversary for Apollo-Soyuz will be this July, when crew ten is
on board the International Space Station as part of expedition 73.
Apollo-Soyuz was, of course, a nine day mission,
and it was testing the compatibility of the docking and rendezvous systems
and the capacity for International Space Rescue,
which I would say is incredibly impressive at that time because, of course,
it was the Cold War, the Soviet Union, and they still were able to demonstrate
that countries can work together in a peaceful way for a greater
good of exploration and science and and even demonstrating
that rescue capability, if we had to help each other out in space.
I always love that bit of history that, you know, depends on where you're from.
Some people call it Apollo-Soyuz, and in Russia they call it Soyuz Apollo.
Of course they do.
Well, beautiful shots here on the left hand
side of your screen, you can see our helo shot of the launch tower.
And tiny little astronaut there on the balcony.
Yeah, that's Carol and talk.
And we just heard in in Carol's package that he's from Siberia.
And I love this fact that his fellow colleagues told me,
even though he grew up in Siberia, he never saw a bear
until he came to California for training.
So that was his first bear.
Being from Russia and from Siberia.
I thought that was a very fun fact.
As. And speaking of animals,
here comes animal and McClain on the right and to the left,
Nicole Ayres making their way into their Dragon spacecraft.
Endurance.
They signed the patch yesterday, so no current countdown
crew in the white room.
Are two mission specialists
now ascending the stairs
right behind the commander and pilot.
And another commander coming up the stairs.
Since talk will be the commander
of the International Space Station once they arrive up there.
So excellent experience for an experienced crew member like talk
to be in charge of the space station.
And it's a really nice transfer of controls from Anne McClain,
being the commander of the vehicle and then handing over to talk, really
giving both of those experienced astronauts
a chance for leadership and a commander ship.
And how can you not do what they're doing right now?
Take in that view.
Look out over the railing and just see what a beautiful Florida day it is.
It's an incredible view from up there.
Usually a little bit windy.
But man, every time I've been up there
looking out, you can see the whole coastline,
all the other launch pads, the VAB, really the entire space center.
And it is simply gorgeous.
Maybe that wind is why one of them is standing a little off from the rail.
Yeah.
You know, Kirill is actually no stranger to the US either.
He actually did it.
He was an exchange student
in high school in Texas, actually, and there was a great story there.
He went to the Johnson Space Center when he was here in high school,
and he had some photos, some memorabilia from JSC
that he had hanging up in his room when he was in high school.
Student.
And his host family in Texas is actually I think they're still here.
I know they were here on Wednesday for the launch.
I'm assuming they stayed as well.
So really cool connection for him.
That's that is very cool.
Core on countdown.
Ingress started on schedule.
And they'll ingress the crew one at a time,
being very careful when they step over that seal
that, surrounds the hatch.
Very important to keep
the environment inside.
And here come our mission
specialist, down the crew access arm,
Tokyo Onishi and Kirill Peskov.
We can see them on
both sides of your screen there, from the outside and the inside.
Love that shot.
Yeah.
That seal that you were talking board, of course.
Incredibly important to the integrity of the vehicle.
And, you know, there have been instances where they even a hair or
something can get in the seal and prevent the pressure integrity, but luckily
they will do a pressure check to make sure it's all situated before liftoff.
They can control for that.
And, this this hatch actually won't be opened again
until splashdown and recovery of the crew.
So it will remain closed for their entire mission.
Yeah, that's a great note there, because
it's such a big deal when they close that hatch,
to know that that door is going to be shut for months before
it's open again.
While our commander and pilot
are getting buckled in, why don't we take a social question?
We've been taking them throughout the show.
We thank you for submitting them.
Chloe.
But Kelly asks Jessica, what is your favorite part
about the ride up to the International Space Station?
Well, it is an incredibly dynamic ride, you know, as
you are launching in any rocket, I launch on the Soyuz rocket
and the Soyuz capsule. So different than what we're seeing here today.
But all of those launches involve, you know, the accumulation of the G-forces.
You especially feel that kind of kick in the pants
when the different stages of the rocket detach.
But I think my favorite part was, you know, in only
about eight minutes, then you're you're in space.
Everything in the capsule starts kind of lifting up, even anything
that was on the floor, little bits of dust or anything that was dropped,
your pencil, your arm start lifting up and everything is weightless.
And I remember looking over at my crew, Alex Skripochka, my commander,
he had flown before, so it was familiar for him, but has a little mini story.
The very first astronaut from the United Arab Emirates.
It was his first flight, just like mine.
And I remember looking at him and his eyes were enormous,
and both of us were just thinking, wow, like, this is it.
We made it to space.
Wow. My journey to space was only six hours
or to the space station was only six hours.
Now, the Soyuz actually often does
what's called a two orbit rendezvous, and they're there in only three hours.
Today, these astronauts will actually be in this capsule for 28.5 hours.
So much different, considerably longer than the flight profile
if they had launched on Wednesday.
And that's just simply orbital mechanics.
Depends on the time that you're launching,
where the space station is relative to you and all of these factors.
So it you know, it could be a very short flight and could be longer,
really that just kind of showing they'll have quite a bit more time
to acclimatize to weightlessness.
They'll probably have some really incredible views to look at.
Whereas, you know, for me it was all very, very fast.
I never even got out of my seat.
But they'll actually have a sleep period up there.
You know,
they'll get out of their seats and suits pretty soon after they're in space.
They'll go to bed for a while and then they'll try to,
you know, get some rest and then wake up refreshed
for the for the next day when they will be docking to the space station.
Yeah.
I mean, I imagine that that is something
to really something challenging about getting some sleep
after you just launched a space in a spacecraft.
Yeah, yeah for sure.
I mean, I haven't had to do that yet, but I do remember when I got to the space
station, you know, you were pretty exhausted.
It's a very long day, but your head is just going through so much.
I mean, you have this whole new mapping of new neural networks as you're starting
to navigate in a three dimensional volumetric way of space.
And it is very, very stimulating.
I think my memories of that,
those first few days are a little bit hazy just because of that.
So it'll be interesting to see, you know, we talked about that a little bit
on Wednesday with an and talk both experience astronauts.
Now generally we see the veteran astronauts emerge
and they look a little bit more graceful.
You know I think because they've already had those neural networks formed,
even if they haven't used them in many years, they're already there.
Whereas the rookie astronauts, Nicole and Kirill,
they're they're probably be a little bit less graceful as they kind of navigate.
And those all of those mechanisms start coming into fruition.
That 28.5 hour transit to the International Space Station
will put this crew on course to arrive
at the International Space Station at 11:30 p.m.
Eastern Daylight Time tomorrow, Saturday,
March 15th.
Let's take another social question
now, Jessica, as we have all four crew members
inside the Dragon endurance now, as they getting settled in,
Joe asks what happens if the astronauts get direct
sunlight through a window in the space capsule or on the ISS
when they don't have spacesuits on regarding radiation exposure did.
This is a curious question,
because I was wondering that you don't have the atmosphere,
you know, filtering the sun in any way. Yes.
So some of the windows on the space station actually do have like a UV
protecting protection built into the window,
just like, you know, in your car
or other types of windows, but some of them do not.
So that's actually, you know, my crew I remember from training
in the Russian in Russia for the Russian segment,
there are two of their windows that actually don't have that UV protection.
And in training they really emphasize that to you
so that you remember that and, you know, you take the precautions.
If you do use those windows.
We do have different types of sunglasses on board so we can help protect our eyes.
We don't actually have sunscreen though.
So you know, you can put put clothes on up to have color cover your skin
with clothes, but you can get a sunburn about that through the windows.
As far as radiation exposure, that is something that we have,
you know, higher levels of radiation when we're on board the space station.
And that's actually something that limits our careers as astronauts.
We have radiation dosimeters on us at all times, and we're tracking those levels
because, you know, we want to make sure that we don't, you know, go
go too far beyond a very high radiation limit.
That would, of course, then increase your chances of getting diseases like cancer.
That makes sense.
And they, they use, I think, a metric comparatively speaking
for how much radiation you get for like how many dental X-rays you,
you could get in a lifetime, like it's a fair amount of radiation.
So that's why they keep track of it. Yeah.
And the limit basically just it is a certain threshold beyond
which your chances of getting cancer are increased by a certain percent
over the general population.
So it's pretty conservative,
but it is something that we track regularly because it is a concern.
Of course, it'll be a much larger concern when we go back to the moon
and eventually on to Mars.
There will be experiencing on those journeys
will have much higher radiation levels
than we do have in the low Earth orbit of the space station.
So that is a very big topic of research
in terms of human health and physiology and how to protect the astronauts.
So, you know, the people engineers are looking at
what type of materials can you use to protect astronauts?
Things like lead are the best protection.
But of course, watching LED would be sort of prohibitive.
But you can use things like water, for example.
So people have engineers have been pretty creative and thinking, can you line
a spacecraft with water that that will then be consumed throughout the mission
and then replace it with any human waste instead?
To get that same level of protection?
Definitely a big concern for those exploration
missions further in the future.
That's pretty interesting.
Thank you for that answer, Jessica.
Really, really interesting.
We got another question here queued up.
Marco asks
what happens if a crew member gets sick at the ice?
I'm sure it's happened.
Yeah, we talked a little bit about that earlier.
So we actually have pretty extensive medical supplies
on the International Space Station, a lot of different medicines
that we would need in any type of unanticipated situation.
We have a defibrillator.
And if anyone needed that in terms of if we had to do CPR, jumpstart
somebody's heart.
And, you know, we don't always fly with a medical doctor.
So, for example, no medical doctors on this crew right here with
they will actually be joined by a medical doctor for expedition 73.
Johnny Kim will be
a part of the Soyuz launch on April 8th, and he is a medical doctor.
During my mission, I had Drew Morgan, so I had a medical doctor on board
throughout my mission, but that's certainly not a requirement.
You know, it was something that made my mom happy
to know that I was flying with the doctor, but not a requirement for us at NASA.
And so what we do is we have pretty extensive medical training.
We have simos crew, medical officers, at least one, but usually several on board.
Throughout the mission.
And we're trained
for a medical emergency type situation so that we would know what to do.
We would have a lot of support from the ground if we had anything happen,
you know,
we would have flight
surgeons on the ground that would be talking us through everything.
And if we had a major emergency that, you know, we couldn't really
take care of ourselves on the space station and was really urgent.
We would just de-orbit the person, we would be able to put them in the vehicle.
You know, this vehicle, this dragon will remain docked for the entire mission.
It's their lifeboat.
If anything happened, whether it be an emergency on the space station
or a medical emergency, we could bring a crew member home
and they would be back on Earth in a few hours.
So that is a kind of luxury that the space station affords.
But, you know, again, when we talk about going back to the moon and to Mars,
we will need to be a lot more autonomous in terms of how we take care of things,
because we won't have that option of being back on Earth
and being back in a hospital setting within a few hours.
So a lot of stuff to think about. There.
As astronauts, we even do something now called field medical training,
which is an incredible opportunity.
I did this a couple of years ago.
We actually go into the active emergency rooms and operating rooms
of some of the major hospitals in downtown Houston,
and we get to ride along with the team and actually help participate
in some of these medical procedures.
So that it gives us more of that real hands on training where we're doing blood
draws, possibly even intubating a patient categorizing a patient.
So it's a really exceptional opportunity for us to get those hands on training
skills, because sometimes, you know, in order to really have that confidence
that you can do something like that, you have to do it.
You have to have that muscle memory and that exposure.
So, just a testament to some of the different unique
kinds of training that we receive as astronauts
that can really help us throughout the mission.
I can't imagine when you're getting ready to, you know, do
one of these procedures and say, hey, trust me, I can do this.
I'm an astronaut.
Yeah. I mean, it's it's pretty shocking.
Sometimes we're like, we're they're going to let us do this.
All right.
You know, for me, I was a physiologist in my former life.
I did a lot of medical procedures on animals for my research.
So it's something that I'm pretty familiar with as a physiologist, and I love it.
I really appreciate those types of opportunities.
But then, you know, sometimes
the test pilots that we fly with, for example,
some of them have very little exposure to that world.
And, you know, might not be so fond of it.
So it's nice to be able to expose everybody to that.
You know, when I did my field medical training,
I did it along with, Matt Dominick, who who was a pilot, of course.
And so it was a really nice
juxtaposition of our very different skill sets from our former lives.
And it was a great opportunity for us to work together
and to learn a lot from that experience.
If I were going to Mars, I would certainly what Doctor Kim or Doctor
Morgan going with me that, that, would be comforting for sure.
Great answer, Jessica, thank you very much for that.
As we look at crew ten
now seated in their capsule
up next for them, we'll be rotating those seats up, I should say,
articulating their seats upwards so they can get into a heads
up position,
a fist bump
from the closeout crew to the flight crew.
As they make their way
out of the capsule to begin
evaluating the seal around the hatch,
you know, we had a beautiful, shot outside
during the daytime.
As we look at the crew, they're huddled.
We've been showing you the beautiful shots outside during the daytime,
but there was a really cool shot last night during the Blood Moon.
Check this out.
Now, this is time lapse.
As you can see, the the shutter capturing the moon as it went
by the Falcon nine rocket and the Dragon spacecraft.
So you can see in the middle there where it was a total eclipse,
a total lunar eclipse.
You know, this is where the sun, the moon and the Earth are all aligned in it.
The moon gets into the darkest part
of Earth's shadow, and it gets that reddish look.
And look at that like what?
What a shot that was.
Yeah, that is absolutely gorgeous.
And we haven't had a total lunar eclipse visible here since 2020.
Since 2022.
How about that?
So really a beautiful view that we had here throughout the US
and other places of this blood moon.
Okay.
Good afternoon.
If I can out 100 to 1 that's that's three and 1.4.
We're ready to come check.
Space.com your hands.
Standby for a local come check.
Each one of the crew members
will now do a series of communication checks
with the ground team.
Commander, pilot, and ms1 MSS to come check.
Out. Of course.
Clear.
Blood and clear.
Loud and clear.
And core.
Loud and clear.
Umbilical cord. Check is complete.
Report one.
Ready for sheet rotation.
Okay.
I don't,
so you can see Nicole Ayres is reaching up there to the displays above her.
And once their seats rotate back into step 1.7.
Ready facilitation.
Space copies will report when initiating.
So once they rotate back, they'll have a an.
And Nicole will have a direct view of those control panels
that will be right in front of their faces.
We can just kind of see the top of it there.
That's where Nicole was reaching up.
So they're all strapped in there with their seat belts
and their five point harnesses, and even their boots have a little kind of
like a, a guide that they can slide onto. And.
Yeah, it's a little slot exactly that. Yeah.
It slides onto the corresponding part on the little foot rest.
So that helps keep their feet in place.
They have what is that, a paper checklist of some sort up there in that.
Yeah. They've got some different checklists.
And then they have on their left knees they have what's called the satchel.
So they have a few different things that they might need
in those early phases of the mission in there.
And they also have their crew tablets so they can
be following along with procedures and different phases of the mission,
just like a pilot to have a paper backup, though,
always, always redundancy is key.
I think that's Dragon space initiating
seat rotation.
Copy.
I think with that cue card that we see,
there is probably their launch cue card, which has kind of their key
trajectory and the key phases of that,
the different of
a corresponding abort sites, if they would need to abort anywhere along there.
And we'll actually hear them call out those
different phases as they initiate the launch profile.
And there they are rotating back to that position.
You have a better view there of that display panel.
Three sets of giraffe legs coming up there and one set of panda legs.
Good view.
It's quite stark in this particular camera view.
Black and white, just like a panda that's.
There you go,
Dragon space X, turn the launch position
and the two, mission specialists.
They have a better view of their window.
Looks like to me.
Yeah, that's one of the big differences.
So, you know, as I mentioned, I flew on a Soyuz, and the Soyuz
has, fairing covering it for liftoff.
So the windows essentially are covered until you jettison that fairing.
Dragon does not have that.
So these astronauts will actually be able to see their ascent away
from the launch pad.
And I've heard that that is incredibly beautiful.
A very cool thing to see as you're lifting off.
There's a little bit of what their view will look like.
You know, clearing the launch tower, perhaps seeing a bit of coastline
along the way, depending on which way their windows will be facing.
One of the things when you don't have that fairing like we have in Soyuz I.
Apparently other astronauts have told me that it makes a dragon much louder
in those first few minutes because you don't
have that additional layer of protection like you do on Soyuz.
That makes sense.
A window much thinner than the rest of the capsule.
The astronauts also use those dragon windows,
sometimes for photography and aurora viewing when they're on ice.
I get, you know, more windows to do exactly what astronauts like to do
best when they're in space is to look back at Earth,
the incredible view of the Earth below them.
It's really spectacular and never gets old.
Dragon SpaceX go for section two.
Certainly check preparation.
Something every photographer can appreciate.
Having multiple different angles to take photos.
Yeah, and just the way that the windows on the space station are lined
up, the angle that you get from those dragon windows is really great
for the aurora, because you can see them coming from hundreds of miles away.
Get your cameras ready better than you can from some of the other windows.
So, you know, we've seen a lot of
incredible photography, especially lately with astronaut Don Pettit on board.
He does a great job, exceptional photographer, definitely recommend
checking out some of his imagery and that of other astronauts
on social media or on the NASA website.
The cupola, does that look straight down?
It does generally in the attitude that we generally fly in on the space station.
We are the cupola is facing directly down, and there's some other windows
that are facing directly down as well.
And then there are some that are kind
of looking out at the sides, the ones that are in the Japanese module.
So you get a few different vantage points.
You also have some windows in some of the Russian modules
that are not facing directly down as well.
Taking photographs in
space is not easy though, so extra props for Don's incredible photos.
Matt Dominic also took a lot of exceptional photos.
Really most astronauts do, but those two really kind of stood out.
But it is difficult because
especially because of lighting, you know, the lighting is changing all the time
when you're in your orbit going around the Earth every 90
minutes, 16 sunrises and sunsets every day, changing quickly.
Yeah. Changing all the time.
So you think you have your your settings perfect.
And then suddenly the light changes,
you know, suddenly there's some different shading from a cloud on the subject.
You know, there's all kinds of things that are changing all the time.
And that makes it really difficult to get that perfect photo or video.
I had never thought about that.
Of course, on Earth, when you're trying to shoot photos in the dusk
or dawn time and that light is changing quickly, it's a challenging time.
But when you're going around the earth every 90 minutes and the sun.
Zippo Dragon two decimal nine
fleet ready for Luke checks that can really be challenging.
So we got like, checks coming up right on time.
Space X copies.
Your go for section three certainly kick.
Things go for section three.
Picture.
So we saw those leak checks earlier.
Now one more round just to make sure things are good.
Their integrity is good now that they're strapped into their seats
because of course these suits are the things that will protect us.
If we had any depressurization of the vehicle for any reason, you know,
throughout most of the mission, you're comfortably unpressurized in the suit.
But the only reason why we wear the suits is, of course,
to protect for that contingency case, if we did have an emergency,
these suits would provide you
with the pressurization you need in order to stay alive.
So pretty, pretty important
through all phases of the the launch profile and also for landing
and why they check it a second time, as you mentioned,
because they did disconnect since doing that first test with their,
you know, their, their, their check out at the astronaut crew quarters.
And now they're plugged in to the system
in the capsule, right in a different system.
The system, the system, of course, they use was just one in the building.
This is their actual vehicle, right?
If you're just joining us, it is T -two hours
and 27 minutes and counting until crew ten launches
to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew program.
As you can see, their crew ten is strapped into their seats
inside Dragon Endurance, waiting for their seats.
To lift off and take them Spaceward.
Yeah, so these vehicles actually don't have a ton of cargo space
when we have the astronauts on board, you know, most of our cargo
comes up on the cargo vehicles.
There is a Dragon cargo vehicle version, and we also have the Northrop
Grumman Cygnus, and we have the Russian Progress vehicle.
That's how we get most of our supplies up there.
We in the past
have had a Russian vehicle called HTV, and now there's actually a new one.
During this mission that talk will be able to capture it.
It's called HTV s.
So that'll be the first flight of that new cargo vehicle.
But interestingly, you know, not a ton of other room on this vehicle with the crew.
So their personal belongings are actually already up there.
They've been up there for months.
All of the clothes that they need,
most of the food that they need and that kind of thing, personal
things will already be up there.
There's a small amount of items in this vehicle with them, maybe some more food,
a few very small amount of personal belongings.
But really the the cargo comes up on those cargo vehicles.
And, and McClain had, written made in response
to some questions that I had and mentioned that some of their personal gear,
will come up on space 32 in April
because this this spacecraft is packed
one of the heavier spacecrafts recently,
in the history of the commercial crew program,
packed with lots of food.
One thing that's very important needed up on
the ice is food and water.
And so they had to make room for some extra food.
And so some of those things will come a little bit later.
She mentioned that,
some of those things were like personal care
check complete for a nominal six
space.
Six copies in concurs
because our team will now perform final closeout steps next to the capsule.
Proceed to section four side hatch close and report would ready to close that.
Package will proceed to section four.
Is report ready for size exclusion?
And McClain said that she
packed some shirts from sports teams.
Dragon space. We got a question for Ms. two.
Would seat four like their Val Salva
installed for lunch?
Dragon.
Affirmative. We would like that.
That's all the things.
Copy the affirmative.
Standby. One.
Okay,
so that Val Salva that they're talking about is a small device
or small, really block of foam that they will in put into the helmet,
and that just helps you if you can't clear your ears
when you're changing pressures in the suit, sometimes you can do that.
Like I can just do that by swallowing, for example.
Kind of like
when you're scuba diving, you know, sometimes you have to do a val
salva maneuver where you plug your nose and create
a little bit of pressure in order to clear your ears.
So that's what they're talking about in spacesuits,
in all types of pressure suits and spacesuits.
We often have these val salva devices so you can lean your nose up
against that device in order to block it, and then get that pressurization
that you might need to clear your ears.
Interesting.
I can,
you know, when I'm diving, just kind of do it.
I guess some people can do it. Just kind of.
Yeah, exactly.
Not that you feel it open up and the pressure releases.
Of course, pressure builds up,
so it'll be easier to get it out for some people, swallowing
or kind of massaging your Eustachian tube and your neck and,
I during when I'm diving, I actually do have to physically hold
my nose to do it, but in when I'm not in a water environment,
if I'm in a spacesuit, I actually don't need to use a vessel at all.
I can just swallow or even kind of move my jaw.
So I think it's it depends a lot on your physiology.
Everybody's a little bit different.
But for me, with the air interface versus the water interface, I think that makes
a pretty big difference. Right.
So it's more like when you fly on a plane and you get up 30 to 33,000ft.
Exactly.
You're clear.
Is complete cruise ready for section six.
Core copies will be
with you in section four.
I'll look outside from the press site,
a historic site itself,
for the fact that that countdown clock and dragon space X, for what?
We're asked, following, that install for BellSouth,
we'll look for, affirmation that crew is go for hatch
closure.
Trying to escape the hatch.
So this.
Space X copies
because our team is taking final steps in preparation for side hatch closure.
Stand by for some state transitions.
Before we get it to pad hatch closed, a reminder at this time, ensure
all items remain secure from now through launch.
That is.
And there they are, removing the protective cover for that seal.
So they're now ready to do an inspection of it
and then get the hatch closed.
This is
the second launch attempt for crew ten.
There was a launch opportunity on Wednesday,
but we stood down from that one
due to some ground equipment.
In the interim, though, between that attempt and this attempt,
the astronauts had some extra time on their hands
and we were talking earlier about them going out to the beach house.
And of course, having,
you know, a variety of experiences for,
the crew.
It's a time to relax.
Maybe it's time to tell a few stories about
their time in space between the two veteran Sam McClain and.
Yeah.
And I think one of the biggest things is really
just appreciating and enjoying the elements on Earth.
And it may be something that and and talk thought more about than Nicole and Carol,
because sometimes you don't really think about it until you've experienced it.
But, you know, in space, one of the things that you miss the most
is just the feeling of the breeze on your cheeks,
the sound of the wind as it rustles through the leaves,
the feeling of the warm sun on your skin, those kinds of things
you don't experience with, with just like you do down here on Earth.
And you suddenly realize how much you miss them.
So hopefully out there yesterday at the beach house they were taking that time
certainly was a beautiful sunny day and it was breezy on the beach as well.
So hopefully they were thinking about that.
You know, it's not something that really occurs to you
until you don't have it anymore.
I remember from from my mission or even from
when I used to do research in the Antarctic when I would come home.
There's also this very distinct smell of life on Earth.
And of course, it's
not something that we notice every day because it's always there.
So it's just part of all the background.
But suddenly when you don't have it and then you come back to it,
it becomes very, very strong.
So I remember
coming back from the Antarctic, the plane would touch down and,
you know, in the Antarctic it's
this cold, austere environment with no natural things growing outside.
So when you land again in New Zealand,
there's this really powerful smell and it's just the smell of life.
I think it's like the smell of the
humidity in the air and all forms of life that are growing that you don't notice
until you have it removed, and then it lasts only for a few minutes.
So you really have to appreciate it.
Like somebody will point it out to you, you preach,
because then it's gone and it's again, it's
just full in the background again and you don't notice it anymore.
I had that experience coming back from the Antarctic, like I mentioned
also when I did a caving expedition with the European,
with the European Space Agency in Italy, the same kind of thing.
You didn't have any of those smells in the cave and you come out,
you're overwhelmed by it.
Your sense of smell is just overwhelmed by it.
And it's just that it's so fleeting and it's gone.
And the same thing coming back from space where you're suddenly
back, you land, the capsule door opens,
and it's this overwhelming smell once again of of really of just life.
How about that?
For all the excitement of going to space,
it's often times these things here on earth that just give
you such a feeling of nostalgia want you want to come back into it.
And that smell of life that you're talking about.
I just that is fascinate.
And there's really, as we know it right now, no place like Earth.
Yeah.
I mean, you don't know what you have until it's gone, right?
That's right.
It's.
You know, I'm thinking about the crew in there and what's going.
What are they thinking about right now?
And maybe they're taking some time to think
about their family members and loved ones that are friends and family.
That are here today for the launch.
And there's a lot of special people here today that that I know for all of these
crew members, I been able to spend quite a bit of time with and family.
And she has a lot of friends here as well.
The axiom four crew, who will be joining them
on the International Space Station hopefully during this mission.
They were here for the first launch attempt,
but unfortunately they had to go back to training.
Peggy Whitson, the commander of that mission, is a close friend of Anne's,
and all four of those crew members were here as well.
And high school friend Steve Gleason is here.
If you're not familiar with that name.
He was a safety for the New Orleans Saints and then, unfortunately came down
with ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease, but has become quite a notable figure.
And on behalf of of ALS and research and support for that disease,
the vapor has an incredible
presence here with all of her family and her volleyball team.
And I love it.
I remember this when vapor was selected as an astronaut as well.
Both Anne
McClain and I were actually on the selection board for Nicole Vapers class,
and I remember her family being there to celebrate their announcement.
They all had matching t shirts and they do again
today, her volleyball team as well.
So a lot of spirit that they're showing.
Kiril, I mentioned he has his host family from when he was a high school
student in Texas, as well as friends and family members here from Russia.
Dragon SpaceX site has just closed and we have begun this.
I'd actually check.
That was.
And talk has a lot of friends from school and his previous jobs back in Japan.
So everybody has an incredible representation of family and friends here
to support them.
And I bet I bet the bet the crew members are thinking about them a little bit.
It's interesting and something we've talked a lot about as astronauts that,
you know, that this day, this launch day is the hardest for the loved ones,
for those friends and family members, as crew members, we are so well-trained
in every little step along the way that, you know,
we don't really have any surprises.
We know what to expect, and we're pretty calm because you're
just doing your job, you're doing what you're trained to do,
but it's the family members that really this is the most difficult on
because they don't have that same level of training.
They don't necessarily understand all the nuances.
And, you know, it's their loved one sitting on the top of that rocket.
So it's an interesting dichotomy, though, where
I think the astronauts are quite calm, but where they're probably more worried
about their family members
and how they're feeling than they are really about themselves right now.
And to draw the connection between you and McClain, you
you two were in the same astronaut class, and that's how you became close friends.
Yeah, we were selected as part of the eight Pauls class back in 2013. So
11.5 years we've been astronauts together and we have become incredibly close.
So this is a very special lodge for me to see and embark
on this second mission, especially because it's just watching her
exactly where she should be and is one of those natural born leaders.
She just has this aptitude and ability
to relate to and lead people in such a powerful way.
So seeing her today as the commander of this crew, knowing
that her crew is in such good hands, it is a really wonderful thing to see
those leadership attributes come out even in the broadcast.
As I've observed her just checking in on her teammates, seeing how they're doing
and when she answers questions, and Prescott references.
She has a strong command of how to communicate, and she communicates
really well.
And that's that's a key to being a good leader, is to be able
to have strong communications skills.
Yeah, she absolutely does.
And when we talk about, you know, the crew
maybe thinking about their family members, I bet.
And right now is thinking about her three other crew members and making sure
that they are comfortable and safe and, you know, have everything that they need.
I have seen her do that all throughout the training profile
and throughout her time here at KSC leading up to launch, as well.
She's really taking care of that crew.
From inside the
capsule to outside of it there at the press site.
See the countdown clock.
Historic sites on the National Historic Register.
In fact, the flag pole blowing and a nice breeze going.
Weather conditions for liftoff today.
There. Fabulous.
There's your forecast.
We are 95% go.
Winds are coming 7 to 12mph out of the south southwest.
Temperature is a mild and comfy 70 degrees.
The only concern for that 5% resides in the cumulus cloud roll.
And that's because we have
a little more moisture in the air than we did two days ago.
But really, as you can see outside, not a lot of cumulus clouds.
You've got those high stratus clouds, but they're
you see some off in the distance over top of the ocean.
But, those seem to be pretty thin,
not expecting a lot of moisture in those.
So that all bodes well.
There's a beautiful shot.
The sky is open and clear for this lift off.
Right now it's green.
Of course, we'll be looking again at the weather is, in fact,
even more closely as we get closer to launch.
Dragon SpaceX,
come check.
This Dragon, that first
quarter. Loud and clear.
Teachers contract complete.
Stand by for comm checks with DC, MD, and l.D.
In the launch configuration.
Dragon D on countdown one contracts.
DC Dragon Biotech
DC Loud and Clear.
Stand by for contracts with MD.
Dragon MD on countdown one.
Check.
And do Dragon's blood test.
MD, you loud and clear.
Stand by for contract over Dragon to ground.
Dragon MD on Dragon to ground.
Come check.
And be Dragon.
A lot of those.
MD. Loud and clear.
Stand by for comm checks with LD
Dragon D on countdown one.
Come check.
Oh, the dragon has a lot of code, L.D..
Like, clear.
Stand by for contract over Dragon to ground.
Dragon LD on Dragon to ground.
Come check.
Okay.
Dragon monitor
LD loud and clear.
Dragon SpaceX configuration.
Com checks complete.
All right.
With the communication
checks complete, that's a good milestone that we are passing now.
Able to communicate with the crew both on the ground and through the air.
We're now T-minus two hours and nine minutes from launch.
The I.s.s.
is an incredible orbiting lab.
And, of course, croutons.
Final destination.
Here's a closer look now at how we're getting help here on Earth
from all of that revolutionary science research being done up in low Earth orbit.
The International Space Station isn't just a symbol,
it's a powerhouse of cutting edge science, constantly revealing secrets
that defy the Earth's limitations and drive us farther into the cosmos.
Our mission is research and science.
We have experiments mounted on the outside of the station
that are looking at Earth.
We study our own bodies
and how they react to space, to weightlessness, to radiation.
And that helps not only us go on further in future missions,
but also helps for medical research back home.
And then we study lots of different things as well, like materials, combustion,
all sorts of things that help us understand life back on Earth.
Yeah,
microgravity doesn't play by the rules.
It flips them upside down, transforming how liquids
flow, how flames burn and unravel biological mysteries.
Before our eyes.
I saw some heart tissues beating in space and it was incredible.
So finally see that top one beating looks like happy heart cells.
But we're not just along for the ride.
We're explorers diving headfirst into the challenge
and harnessing the power of this unparalleled platform.
Just as we have been for decades.
We're on a relentless quest for answers,
seeking to understand the intricate workings of the human
body in space and ensuring future crews
stay safe on their daring journeys beyond Earth's orbit.
The human aspect of human space exploration
is always going to be very important for decades to come.
And when it comes to technology, we're not waiting around.
We're discovering new ways to grow crops in harsh environments
and engineering innovations to tackle Earth's greatest challenges.
We have amazing technology that allows us
to recycle water and create water for us to drink.
It's delicious.
Microgravity isn't just a curiosity, it's
a game changer in the fight against diseases back on Earth,
paving the way for breakthroughs that benefit us all
and enabling new economic opportunities in space.
Welcome.
Axiom three on board the International Space Station.
From our vantage point, more than 200 miles
above Earth, we are not just spectators.
We're gaining unprecedented insights into the world we call home.
And we're sharing our findings openly.
We're not just achieving results today.
We're sparking inspiration and future generations of explorers and embracing
the power of global collaboration as we reach for the stars.
What was your favorite experiment on the International Space Station?
Tobi great question.
My favorite experiment was the one that I got to eat.
It was us growing hatch chili peppers in our plant habitat.
They come through on two.
We have video in mode one. Look at those chili peppers.
And as we saw through
space at 17,500mph,
each moment is a step closer
to unlocking the mysteries of our Earth, our universe,
and propelling our pioneering spirit even farther into space.
So come along for the ride aboard the International Space
Station.
Seeing that video
brings a lot back of a lot of fond memories of my mission.
We didn't grow peppers, but we actually grew Mizuno lettuce
during my mission, and that was something that I very much enjoyed
because you had something green and growing that you were taking care of.
You were giving it water every day and monitoring the growth.
And then the best part was at the end of the experiment, we processed the lettuce.
And some of it, of course, had to go back down for science.
But then we were able to enjoy a fresh salad.
So that was a big moment for me.
And we have so much incredible science going on the International Space Station
during all increments, and there are some specific experiments
I can highlight today for what this crew specifically will be doing.
There are kind of two areas where I actually got gotten into the time
now, where we even do some science on board
the Dragon before the crew docks to the International Space Station.
Some of those experiments that they'll be doing in Dragon, they have an experiment
called Space Health, which is a Canadian Space Agency experiment.
It's a bio monitoring, wearable technology garment,
and it's looking primarily at things like the cardiovascular system
in terms of understanding more about how that system responds to microgravity,
to make sure that we can monitor
these aspects of astronauts and keep them safe on orbit.
There's an experiment called thigh cuff that they'll be doing in Dragon as well.
And this is really a small kind of restraint
that they put around their thighs.
And this can help prevent and counteract some of the fluid shift
that we experience in microgravity.
So in microgravity, we have this upward fluid shift of our blood volume
where it really leaves our legs because here on Earth gravity is pulling
of course, all that blood down to your feet.
So in space you have this upward fluid shift where
the blood goes upward into the torso area and in the face.
Sometimes you can see that in some of the astronauts,
especially as they start adjusting to the microgravity environment.
And some of these fluid shifts may be actually
contributing to some of the problems that astronauts are experiencing.
Space.
There is one example, the space flight associated neuro ocular syndrome.
And this has some some different hallmark features.
But basically it is causing some vision deficits in some astronauts.
And they come back and actually changes to the anatomy of the eye,
the back of the eye,
the retina and the choroid layer, which has the blood supply for the retina.
The some astronauts have an optic disc edema.
So a swelling of the optic disc and also even a flattening of the eyeball.
So a flattening of the back of the eyeball
actually changes the refraction and changes your vision.
This was something that I actually experienced during my mission.
I had a pretty severe case of sans.
Luckily, everything is kind of back to normal now,
but the one lasting symptom that I have is that I have perfect vision. Now.
When I launched to space, I actually did wear glasses and contacts,
and because of that globe flattening, I now have 25th Division
that had a 2015 vision that has persisted for the last five years.
So most expensive corrective surgery possible.
Thank you taxpayers.
When you mentioned that on
Wednesday, I was it really kind of surprised me that it fixed it.
But then I thought about it.
And for most people who know I wear glasses, for people who also wear glasses
or contacts, you can have an astigmatism, which is an irregular shaped eyeball.
And I was wondering since then if that's what ends up happening, does it
then take that irregular shaped eyeball, which is more like a football,
and kind of make it more into a basketball?
Where do you go to in terms of your face?
Not necessarily. In terms of my case.
It's not like it's causing elastic mutism.
And I didn't have, you know, but I'm saying reversing it.
Yeah. Well, I didn't have enough stigmatism to begin with.
That's different than just being nearsighted or farsighted.
So I'm not sure actually,
if we have any data on people that,
you know, experienced stands at having a stigmatism.
That's an interesting question on how it would affect that overall shape.
This is kind of just a flattening of the back of the eyeball that's normally round.
So it changes that refraction which of course changes,
you know, your your prescription and your changes your your vision there.
This crew onboard Dragon will also
participate in an experiment called immunity assay.
And this is a new way to monitor health and immune function with a blood sample.
So most of the time historically in space, we take blood samples
and we have to send them back down on Earth to be studied by scientists
to evaluate them for all these different parameters.
For example, immune system parameters.
This is actually an in-flight assay that would allow the data
to be collected in flight without going back down to the ground.
So could be really important in terms of physiology and medical
research and also direct health of the astronauts as well.
Yeah.
Because when the blood comes back down to Earth instantly, gravity is in a factor.
So studying it in that microgravity environment while it's up there.
Yeah.
The blood sample itself, you know, the parameters that they're looking at.
You know, they won't be changing any more because they're not exactly
in the human body anymore. But you're right.
You know, now, you know, we are we are keeping it the experiment
a little bit more clean
since we're never exposing anything back to that one G environment.
When the crew is on the space station, a few of the experiments
they'll be participating in.
One is the cipher study, which is a really large, comprehensive
physiological study that has been kicked off in recent years here at NASA.
And it's really a multidisciplinary study looking at both physiology
and psychological components.
And it's comparing different duration missions as well
and will be really important for that comprehensive physiology,
for example, applications to Sands like we talked about.
There's an experiment called Drain Brain 2.0 that's really looking at blood flow
between the heart and the brain in space.
And how that changes with microgravity
involves a special neck collar that the astronauts will wear.
And there are some particular flammability experiments, combustion
experiments, one called Sophie mist that the astronauts will be participating in.
This is something that we do quite frequently combustion experiments
in space, because if you think about it, of course, even flames burn differently
when you don't have this natural air motion and convection caused by gravity.
This particular experiment is looking at different models for flammability
that can be used on future space missions, and has terrestrial applications
for combustion models as well.
So lots of different types of science, really engaging and really important,
not just for the future of astronauts and future space exploration, but direct
applications to disease states and other factors back down here on Earth.
The burning stuff in space sounds like fun.
It is fun. It's don't worry.
It's very it's very well contained.
Are you're just not taking a batch you abs.
Yeah, definitely.
We have a special facility
where it's a very contained environment in a glove box
where we do these types of experiments so we can make sure
that we keep the astronauts in the space station safe.
Once that's important.
We are at t -one
hour and 59 minutes and counting from liftoff of the Falcon nine rocket
and Endurance Dragon spacecraft from Launch
Pad 39 A here at the Kennedy Space Center.
Crew ten, as you can see here currently inside Dragon.
So far, Q10 has completed their comm checks
to make sure they can communicate with the teams here on the ground.
Their seats have rotated from their upright to their reclined
launch position, which allows them to see and access their display panels.
They have also completed their suit leak checks
to make sure that their spacesuits are working properly.
We also
heard verification that we have a good side hatch leak check,
so that's good.
If you've been watching us since we came on the air at 3 p.m.
Eastern time.
You know that
we've had fantastic commentary from NASA astronaut Jessica Meir.
My name is Darrell Dale.
I had the pleasure and the honor to sit next to her and help document
this journey to the launch pad with all of you.
Let's go over the crew
so you have a sense of a little bit about the folks
who were inside the capsule today.
We'll start with our crew
commander and McClain.
This NASA astronaut is a West Point graduate and U.S.
Army colonel who has spent 204 days in space and completed two spacewalks.
She's a highly decorated master master Army
aviator with over 2000 flight hours posted, press briefing.
Hashtagging.
Go ahead.
The good news at this time we are tracking no issues with Dragon or Falcon.
Proceeding with launch today at this time.
So I have no updates for you,
but we'll continue to keep you up to date if anything happens.
Otherwise, the closeout team is performing
their final steps in the white room before they, depart the pad.
Now, copy.
May 6th Dragon copy.
No issues.
Great work for the key.
That's a great update.
Working. No major issues.
The launch vehicle, the spacecraft, ground systems.
All good as we watch the closeout crew that continued to do their work
before leaving the launch complex.
And just to wrap up on an.
She's a former rugby player and a pretty good one from what I hear.
She got the nickname animal.
Yeah, she is pretty tough.
We talked earlier about her need for speed and I think that leads into the story
we told on Wednesday that I have to retell about how she has a particular
inclination to operate vehicles in complex situations,
and this one goes back to high school, where she apparently ordered a pizza
so large it could not be transported in the car.
So she and her friend got in the car.
They put the pizza on top of the car and and as the driver natural commander,
she of course had her left arm up on top of the car
to hold the edge of the pizza box on her right hand on the steering wheel,
and her friend had her right hand up on the other side from the passenger seat.
So Ann is really ready for anything.
I would say in terms of transportation and complicated vehicle setups.
And where in the world is it that you can order a pizza that's as big
as the roof of a car?
Spokane, Washington. Apparently, apparently so.
Like, wow, colossal something.
I guess they were, Okay, well, it's a good thing it didn't come off the roof,
because it sounds like it would cover an entire windshield, so good job, man.
Hey, let's talk about our crew ten pilot.
Now, NASA astronaut Nicole Ayres.
She's a US Air Force major and graduate of the Air Force Academy.
Nicole has flown the T-38 and the F-22 Raptor,
logging over 1400 flight hours, including 200 in combat.
This will be her first spaceflight, making history as the first astronaut
from NASA's 2021 class to fly, and she has said that that is very special to her.
She feels humbled by it, and she's flying
stuff up into space for her fellow classmates.
In honor of her, being able to go first,
you know where she got her callsign Viper?
I do not.
It's an interesting story as well.
You know, she's an F-22 pilot and apparently is one of her early flights.
And I think she had a formation flight with her colonel or something
as her on wings.
So big deal. Flight.
She got ready to start the aircraft.
And suddenly, as she was doing so, there was some kind of smoke building in
the cockpit.
So her training kicked in and she was abort, abort, abort quick,
you know, ready to leap into action and abort that engine start.
And turns out it was just condensation.
So that's how she became known as vapor.
Vapor.
The vapor that condensate add onto her glass inside the cockpit.
Well,
it's as good a nickname as any.
I thought you were going to say that.
She pulls really hard G's and creates a vapor trail and you would go that too.
Oh, that.
That works as well.
She is a jet pilot.
Yes, she is indeed.
Let's move on to our mission specialist now.
Takuya Onishi,
he's our Jaxa astronaut on board.
He's returning to space for his second mission.
A former commercial pilot, he spent 113 days aboard the space station in 2016 and
then became the first Japanese astronaut to capture the Cygnus spacecraft.
When he's not training as an astronaut, he enjoys flying, hiking, movies,
and playing the saxophone, also serving as a flight director.
You know, he, after his second flight, got certified as the flight director
and was actually acting
as a flight director on the ground in the mission Control center in Japan
for even up during his training flow until his last trip to Japan.
So really exceptional experience for him because it really gives you
that kind of perspective that's so vital as an astronaut to understand
the ground really intimately.
A lot of us as astronauts work as Capcom in the Mission Control Center,
talking to the astronauts from the Mission Control Center,
and that that affords that as well.
But being a flight director is even more impressive.
So well done for talk for keeping that up.
He even has an asteroid named after him because you mentioned that before, and I
I'm still very curious at how that came about to dig that one up.
Yeah, but you know, you mentioned his qualifications,
which flows into his upcoming assignment as I.s.s.
station commander.
Those are some great qualifications.
The fact that he has seen it from both sides, both in space
and on the ground.
The second mission specialist is Roscosmos cosmonaut
Kirill Peskov, a former airline copilot.
This will be his first trip to the international Space Station.
Trained in skydiving, zero gravity scuba diving and wilderness
survival, he's ready for the challenges of space.
Not a man of very many words, but when he does
speak, he's very succinct,
very clear.
Kirill, we talked about the fact
that, he had never seen a bear
until he went to California, even though he grew up in Siberia.
But another great fact that I came across from his colleagues
was that, you know, in his this region in Siberia, it's
very close to the Mongolian border, which is an incredible part of the world
where I actually had the opportunity to go to do some research, to study bar headed
geese in Mongolia. And it is a very special area.
But one of the things that special about that area
is that they do a lot of throat singing.
It's this old traditional form of singing that's really deep and guttural
from the back of the throat. I won't even try to do it because I can't.
But if you've never heard it, you should definitely Google it and see.
But apparently Kirill does throat say he could do it.
He can.
So I wonder if he's doing any of that, any of that for them in the capsule.
I've I've heard this
just so happen to have heard it and I and I was fascinated by the sound
that they make, with their throat and in this singing it,
it's, it's really it's really pretty cool.
At first I was like, oh, whoa.
But, there was a very, popular commercial on TV in which they,
they had some of that throat singing, and that's where I first heard it.
So I had to go look it up. It is very cool.
That is pretty cool,
We are t -one hour and 49 minutes
until the liftoff of NASA's SpaceX crew ten mission.
We have three astronauts and one cosmonaut
inside of Dragon Endurance atop a Falcon nine rocket.
There at Launch Pad 39, a,
they are headed to the International Space
Station to help maintain the orbiting lab.
Once on board the International Space
Station, crew ten will become members
very briefly of expedition 72 for a few days.
And there you see the members.
They'll be joining crew nine.
And then they will become part of expedition 73.
They will conduct research to understand material flammability,
contributing to the future spacecraft design, and study
how spaceflight affects human physiology and psychology.
And that's their patch.
Yeah. The crew an interesting one. Daryl.
The expedition 73 patch was designed to honor the science and scientists
that make space exploration possible, and if you look at some of the elements
on the patch here, the number 73 is a prime number and a binary palindrome.
There's a good one for Pi Day.
Oh, that geeks watching today.
And that's represented at the base of the patch
73 is also a star number, represented by the
hex hexagonal shape of the patch accented by white stars.
And the symbolize the crew's dedication to space exploration.
The grid lines illustrate our earthly perspective from the cosmos.
And finally the ice.
The International Space Station, symbolizing
humanity's continued collaboration across space and time.
Those grid lines, to me, look like something out of an 80s video game.
Yeah, or The Matrix.
You know, I believe Johnny Kim was the mastermind behind this mission.
I believe we talked about it on Wednesday, but the way that we start
a new expedition on board the International Space Station,
it actually rotates, not with the Dragon flights, but with the Soyuz flights.
So expedition 73 will begin on April 8th with the launch of that Soyuz mission.
Sergei Ryzhikov, Alexei Bruschi and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim for his first flight.
Well, we have a moment.
Let's take another social question.
Laura.
Let's see.
Landon Davidson asks, how long does it take
to readjust to gravity on Earth once you return?
Well, Landon, like all things physiology related, there is a bit of individual
variation, so different humans experience it a little bit differently for me.
You know, it was interesting.
When I went to space, I actually adjusted very quickly,
even though, you know, as humans we've never evolved without gravity.
I felt really comfortable and like I was at home.
Some astronauts do experience space motion sickness, so
for those first few days where they may feel a little bit queasy,
even a little bit nauseous, maybe even vomiting a little bit, but that's normal.
And usually resolves in the first few days.
And most of that,
most of these effects are really due to your neuro vestibular system.
So your inner ear we have these semicircular canals
and some other organs
that are actually gravity dependent in terms of how they work for your newer
vestibular system, which is of course responsible for spatial awareness
and balance and those types of things.
So that system goes a little bit haywire when you first experience microgravity
and then once again after you've adapted to that and you come back down to Earth.
So when you come back down to Earth, you, you don't feel great.
You you literally feel gravity, kind of like the bully on the playground
that has her hand on your head and it's pushing you down.
You feel the weight of gravity when you're sitting down, like you just feel heavy.
You go to get up from sitting on the couch.
I remember having some lower back pain that actually persisted for many months.
I just felt really stiff, like a like I was suddenly 80
or 90 years old and I couldn't quite straighten out my back.
But overall, astronauts generally adjust pretty, pretty quickly.
You know, in those first few minutes and even hours,
you're a little bit like a drunken sailor.
When that neuro vestibular system is really kind of readjusting.
Some people have a little bit of a little bit of motion sickness
in those first few days. I didn't really have that.
I was pretty fortunate.
And then, you know, you readapt to things like walking kind of quickly
because your body just, you know, gets used to it.
You'd been doing it for so many years before flight takes a little bit longer
to adapt to running, because I think because it's
this more complex motor neuron connection for running than it is walking.
And I remember that very well.
It was in the gym with my, my trainer.
And you know, she's like, okay, go ahead, run across the gym.
And it felt so strange as I took kind of that up stroke of one foot felt normal.
But then when I landed my foot,
I felt like I was an elephant crashing down to the ground.
And, you know, we run in space on the treadmill every day, every other day.
And so you're used to running, but you're not
really used to running at your full body weight because in weightlessness,
we have a harness that we use to hold us down on the treadmill,
but we usually only run at about 75% of our body weight.
And of course, it's so different when you're not under the full effect of
gravity.
So running takes a lot longer to kind of get normal again.
So depending on what exactly you're talking about,
you know, the first days, even weeks, you feel pretty tired.
But then you adapt fairly quickly after that and,
you know, maybe some lingering lingering effects
for some people, back pain and that kind of thing.
But really a lot of individual variation. There.
And you touched on it.
It's not like you're not working out on station.
Your exercise is part
of your daily regimen, and you're staying as fit as you possibly can.
So it's really interesting that when you come back down
that neuro vestibular system,
that's the thing that's not used to it and is throwing everything off.
Yeah. Yeah.
Because your cardiovascular system, you know, you are running and bicycling
every day pretty much up there to maintain your cardiovascular system.
But of course, the rest of the time, cardiovascular system is not act
against the force of gravity like it is here on the ground all the time.
So there's some level of deconditioning that just happens where,
you know, on the space station, I'm up there.
I loved running on the treadmill.
You kind of feel like a gazelle since you're a little bit off loaded fast.
And yeah, even your gait changes.
You know, your stride changes a little bit because of the mechanics of running
or just different up there
when you're not under your full body weight
and you're kind of, you know, you're being held down by this harness.
But I really, really enjoyed it.
But you're running for miles, you know, every day.
So mile I mean, Sonny Williams
did a and some a few other people have actually done marathons,
which basically was our team as a part of the karate.
Space extended as happy.
So what happens is when you come back down to earth,
you're you just like even though you've been running miles a day,
you come back to Earth and you can't even run a mile
because you've had this kind of cardiovascular deconditioning.
So that takes a little bit longer to come back.
Interesting.
From a marathon to struggling with a mile
just because of the change and coming back from space to Earth.
Well, we are now t -one hour and 42 minutes and counting.
Let's take you now inside Mission Control in Houston, where flight controllers
are constantly monitoring the International Space Station
and the people living on board.
NASA's Gary Jordan is there.
Good afternoon, Gary.
Good afternoon, Daryl and Jessica.
Thank you.
This is Mission Control Houston, and we're in the International Space Station's
flight control room here at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
The team continues to prepare for launch, led by flight Director T.J.
Kremer.
Today, we'll be, of course, launching the 10th rotational crew mission
to the International Space Station under the agency's Commercial Crew program.
Following Crew Ten's arrival, the space station will have
a total of 11 crew members aboard for just a few days.
Four of those 11 crew members include the crew nine commander
with NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams,
alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexei Ilic.
Alexander Corbin off.
During the next few days, crew ten will go over handover procedures
with the off going crew nine, including a safety briefing and orientation.
Then the new crew will jump right in to help advance
scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies.
After a few days of handover activities, the members of crew
nine will prepare for their undocking and return to Earth.
Direct handovers between crews allow for continuity
of the activities and helps to ensure a continuous US presence
on the space station, which is now at 24 years and counting.
Ahead of Crew Nine's return, NASA astronaut Sonny Williams turned over
command of the space station to Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexei of China
in just a few weeks, NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei
Ryabkov and Alexei Zabriskie will join the on orbit
crew shortly after the departure of the Soyuz Ms.
26, with NASA astronaut Don Pettit.
Coming home will mark the commencement of expedition 73,
led by the new commander, Jackson astronaut Takuya Onishi.
All of this, of course, coming up after today's launch.
We continue with the countdown, and with under two hours before launch,
we'll send it back to Kennedy. Daryl.
If you're just joining
us, this is live coverage of
NASA and SpaceX's crew ten mission to the International Space Station.
We're now T-minus one hour and 40 minutes until liftoff.
And so far, we've had a smooth countdown.
No issues with the rocket or spacecraft.
And ground systems are looking good for launch.
You're looking now at the crew inside their capsule.
Crew ten.
And one of the first tasks crew ten did as a team
was designed and create their mission patch.
There it is on your screen.
And here's their description.
The SpaceX crew ten patch was thoughtfully designed by the four person crew.
They used A.I.
for the initial inspiration, and then a human artist perfected the design.
So, as you can see, as you're looking it there, it's a ten sided
patch with the Roman numeral X boldly in the center,
representing the ascent and descent that they will do.
It's also representing the 10th operational flight of the Dragon
spacecraft.
Notice the Dragon with its wings fully out in full flight.
That's a nod to the four crew members who are all professional pilots.
The stars are red, white and blue for the flag
colors of each crew members home country, and the brightest stars
represent the crew's closest family members and support system.
It's a lovely patch.
And it was interesting.
Nicole Ayres was asked about it.
She said she kicked off the design of the patch
when she and her husband
initially used the AI image generator to come up with some ideas,
but it was really just to kind of kick off some ideas.
And she took those then to the human artist,
who then was able to artfully design that crew tent patch and
I really like that X in the middle
and how it's got them ascending into space and then returning to space.
It's a good one, and you can see it there, represented on the flag pole
just below the American flag
flies the crew ten patch
on the CCP flag.
CCP standing for Commercial Crew program.
Yeah, it's one of the great things that we do together as a crew.
Another one of those traditions like we talked about,
you know, I don't know that
everybody knows that we really do design those patches by herself.
So we try to capture the elements that are important to us, special things
from our professional and or personal lives, special things
about the mission and timing,
and just things that mean a lot to all of us as crew members.
Oftentimes, you know, we are capturing the international spirit of cooperation
and collaboration
that's reflected by the makeup of our crew.
We talked already about that 50th anniversary
of the Apollo-Soyuz mission as well.
All of these things really play into our patch design
and thinking about what components to put there.
Will you have some
art artistic influence in your patch if you do a patch one day?
Oh, absolutely.
So yeah, I did to help design the patches for my previous mission
and for future missions as well.
Q10 is also allowed to have some personal items, as you well know.
Jessica.
Jessica Meir, astronaut with NASA, joined us here on the broadcast.
They get to take them with them for
their stay, their extended stay in space.
And for this crew, here's a few things that they will be, taking up.
And McClain.
Her and her crew were able to pack some personal gear to meet them on the ISS.
It's going up on space X 32 in April.
She pack some sports team shirts, and, those are from the schools
she attended, along with some holiday gifts for the crew.
Commander McClain
said most importantly, she was able to pack a memento
for multiple people who worked on this flight to support her.
Either personally or the mission as a whole.
Those items will be returned to their owners after flight,
and they include things like pins, necklaces, and rings.
It's neat to have some jewelry that's flown in space
to Korea, Onishi.
He's having a lot of pictures of his family, friends and colleagues set up.
He's also flying some banners from elementary schools he participated in
when he was a small kid.
Yeah, it's
always fun to bring a few of those personal effects from home.
You know, we one of the things as astronauts
that's so important to us is being able to share this mission.
You know, and this is not just for us as individuals or even just for us as a crew.
This is really a mission for everybody.
Everybody at NASA and all of our partner agencies,
all of the people of our countries, really all of the citizens of the world.
So we try to bring up things to represent that, whether they are from,
you know, universities that we attended, different organizations
we belong to, things that really represent all of the different people
who helped us get where we were and where we currently are.
On the International Space Station,
and to really bring it back to them, to tie it to them as well,
to share the mission
and remind everyone that this is truly for them and for all of humanity.
I just add, a note about Nicole.
She said she's taking items from alma maters
and the Air Force volleyball team, which you mentioned.
Some of them are here today. Yeah. They are.
She's also taking a bunch of pictures of her friends
and family so she can keep them close.
And since she's the first person from her astronaut class
to go to space, she's also taking up something for her classmates.
The flies, of course. Group 23.
But she didn't want to say what it was.
She wants it to be a surprise,
but she's said that she's getting nothing but love and support from her classmates.
Yeah, absolutely.
I know that they are all so proud of her today.
So excited for her. I never forget that.
That first moment when you see your first classmate launch,
it really does feel different.
You know?
You get to know all of the other astronauts and cosmonauts that are flying.
And every launch, of course, is very special
when it's one of your friends or colleagues.
But it's a little bit different when you see your own classmate,
because it just makes it more real for you.
Now your classmates are like your friends and family, and they started
at the same time as you, and it just gives this extra dose
of reality of you know, wow, I didn't just become an astronaut.
We actually are going to have the chance to go to space now.
So very exciting day.
I know for all of the flies
there and
a relaxing one for Kirill Peskov, who was on the left side of your screen,
who, looks to be taking advantage of some relaxing time before liftoff.
Absolutely. Maybe he's getting ready for some throat singing.
You know, maybe this is part of the process.
He just heard me.
He woke up.
Yeah.
It's going to.
Let me clear my throat.
Well, as crew ten launches,
that means that crew nine will return home soon.
Crew nine launch from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral
Space Force Station back on September 28th, 2024.
That was a unique flight because it was only two crew members.
In order to make room for Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams, who,
of course, flew up on a Boeing Starliner test flight.
But, are now coming down in those two open seats with crew nine.
That capsule is on station right now.
Wilmore and Williams have been living
and working on the space station now for over nine months.
The other two for a little over five months.
Once crew ten arrives, there will be what's called a direct handover
for four days, which is going to be shorter than usual.
And then, of course, crew nine will undock and come back home.
And so that's going to be a quick handover period.
That they're going to have
a little different than the longer week or so that they have.
Yeah.
Depends on
what's going on, you know, with comings and goings of different spacecraft.
So those those handover periods can be variable also because, you know,
we never know exactly when the dragon's going to leave
because we have to have good weather prediction for landing.
So you never know exactly how long they'll be.
But we do have to plan for something.
This one is called a two plus two handover.
So we'll have two days of dedicated handover activities where the crew members
that are up there,
the experienced crew members will be handing over
all the important information, how they do things.
You know, of course, this new crew is well
trained on all the systems and everything up there,
but there is just something to understanding exactly the lay of the land
when you see it in person.
Little nuances
that you can really only get from the crew members
that are up there, you can't necessarily get from the ground teams.
So we take that time to really handover all that really important information
that would be, you know, especially
for the new astronauts that have never been on board,
but even for an and talk or experience that have been on ISS before,
things have changed. It's been years since their mission.
So there's different hardware on board, different systems.
Some things are running a little bit differently.
So really important time.
The other component of two from that two plus two is one arrival day.
And then one departure day.
We will be extremely happy to have Sunny and Butch backed out here on Earth.
They've been up there for longer than expected,
but they were up there in space doing their mission.
Doing what we do as astronauts the moment we all wait for as astronauts.
So they've had a very productive mission.
I love that we saw that image of Sonny running on the treadmill.
We talked about how she ran a marathon at a previous mission.
I'm not sure if she did it again on this one or not, but,
I'll have to ask her about that.
It'll be great to have them back.
And they're coming back with another one of my eight ball classmates, Nick Hague.
So indeed.
And a lot has been made about the return of Sadie at Butch, as we know
in the media and the reporting that's been happening about that.
What's it?
What's your sense of it inside the astronaut office
that, so much attention has been given to their return?
Yeah, definitely a lot of attention.
But as I was saying, they are up there doing what astronauts are supposed to do.
That is what we live for.
And that's really our main intent of being astronauts,
is to go to space and to do science and to do maintenance and do all the work
that you do on the International Space Station.
So it's really
no big deal that that Butch and Sunny are up there again, longer than expected.
But they're contributing to all the science
and all the maintenance onboard, just like every other crew member.
And it's just something, as astronauts that we know
we always have to be ready for.
We always have to be flexible.
You know that there's a plan for your mission.
That plan can always change.
As you've seen in recent years, there are so many different things
that can happen, not just with vehicles, but all different aspects of the space
station program.
And so, you know, we know we accept the mission
knowing what the plan is, but knowing full well that there's a very good chance
that it can change.
And that's just something that, you know,
a lot of us are used to from our previous careers as well.
That flexibility of adaptability,
and I think it's one of our most important skills as an astronaut.
And that's what Sunny and Butch you've been doing.
You're absolutely right.
They went up on a test flight that was supposed to last eight days,
but they were ready to become part
of the team up at the International Space Station, working, maintaining.
They did spacewalks.
They have done they have done it all. Yeah.
They're both very experienced astronauts.
They've done International Space Station missions before.
So it's not something foreign to them.
And they were incredibly productive during their time.
All right quick social question.
We want to get another one up.
We had a question come in from Swamp Smoke.
Who asks what's one thing about living in space that no amount
of training on earth can fully prepare you for?
Yeah. That one. We get asked that one quite a lot.
You know what I usually answer, I think is is true.
You know, we we have so much extensive training that we've talked about today.
We know all of these things.
We have all this muscle memory for the spacesuit
and all the things that we do up there.
But what nothing can train you for is how it feels
to live and work in microgravity all the time.
Just the simple things,
like the fact that you can't put your drink down on the table,
you can't put your pen down.
We've got Velcro on everything, and it's this really,
if you see the photos and video
of the International Space Station, there's stuff everywhere
on all the walls and the ceiling, on the floor, cables everywhere.
So if you take your drink bag and you Velcro it to a wall
because you're up on the ceiling working for one moment
and then you go to a different location, you're on the floor or one of the walls.
Suddenly you're like, wait a minute, where did I put that drink bag?
Because everything blends in in this three dimensional space,
and your brain just isn't used to that, you know, here on Earth.
Look at look at us right now.
Everything that we're using or looking at is really right now on this desk.
You know, we just put everything down, it stays there.
We are not using any of this
three dimensional space above our heads or behind us or on the walls and in space.
You utilize all of that so it takes your brain some time
to really adapt to that, to understand, you know, you
you lose things a lot in the beginning because you put your drink back down.
You don't know where it went
because now you've been in all these different orientations and positions
and it's really hard to to make those connections on spatial awareness.
So I think that's the thing that's that's really difficult.
Nothing can train you for it.
You know, you could talk to other astronauts
and they can give you tips for dealing with some of these things.
But until you experience it yourself, you know, you really can't prepare for it.
I lose a lot of stuff on the ground.
I can only imagine what I would lose in space.
Thank
goodness that, my wife helped me track it down, along with these little Bluetooth,
reminders of where my keys and my wallet.
All right, T-minus one hour and 26
minutes and counting.
Crew ten.
Getting ready for their mission to the International Space Station.
And there you see them.
From left to right, we have Roscosmos cosmonaut in mission specialists career.
Peskov.
To his left, our right, the commander.
I'm sorry.
The pilot, Nicole, airs
to her left.
Going to the right
is the commander and McClain.
And then to the far right on the screen,
mission specialist and Jaxa astronaut
Takuya Onishi.
Up next.
We'll be looking for the launch
escape system health check.
It's been a beautiful day so far here on the Space Coast.
Ahead of liftoff.
Currently at 7:03 p.m.
Eastern Daylight Time and 48 seconds
for those who like to know the detail.
Our journey today
began at astronaut crew quarters.
T -four hours, when the astronauts began suiting up
after a good weather brief.
Some breakfast and health checks.
They got into their vehicles and traveled out to the pad.
Took about 20 minutes.
They ascended the launch tower
and then crossed that crew access arm that you see on the right hand
side of the screen that took them into the white room at the very end of the arm,
and they ingress ingress into the spacecraft
where they are now.
Yeah, less than 90 minutes until liftoff.
They performed this routine exactly as they did today.
On Wednesday, during the first launch attempt,
we got down to T-minus 43 minutes until we had an issue with some ground equipment
and the hydraulics, where there was a trapped
pocket of air inside the system that was fixed and bled out.
On Thursday.
And now the ground support equipment is good to go.
The launch vehicle is go and so is the spacecraft.
More recently, the umbilical.
That you can see those attached there
across the back of the rocket, actually into the transporter
erector.
They provided some comm checks through those.
We did some suit leak checks
for the astronauts inside the capsule.
We also did some comm checks, completed those,
and the closeout team closed
and sealed the hatch.
Right after they got a leak
check of its own inside the capsule to make sure that nothing would leak out.
There. You see it? There.
And that side leak hatch check is good.
Side hatch leak check.
Rather
also a final check for FOD,
which is foreign object debris.
B closeout team carefully
examine the area around the seal
for the side hatch,
and they have since left.
They cleared out of the blast danger area
and now the only four people who remain
inside the perimeter of Launch Complex
39 A are right there on your screen.
The crew for crew ten.
This Dragon Endurance
spacecraft is a special one for NASA.
It's also special to Jessica, as you noted.
So well.
And talking about the name of, endurance and a historic ship
that, helped Shackleton cross the Antarctic.
The Dragon spacecraft
endurance will take crew ten to space today
in its fourth space flight
since its first flight in 2021.
For crew three, SpaceX's
Endurance Dragon has been a workhorse for NASA's Commercial Crew Program.
Flying mission after mission, it has safely carried astronauts
to the International Space Station with crew seven.
Endurance proved its reliability yet again, marking its third journey to orbit.
In all, endurance has flown ten astronauts and two cosmonauts
to and from the International Space Station, and it's supported
international crews from NASA, ESA, Jaxa and Roscosmos.
As live coverage of NASA and SpaceX's
crew ten launch to the International Space Station.
We are T-minus
one hour and 17 minutes and counting until liftoff of crew ten on a Falcon
nine rocket to the International Space Station.
Crew ten will be the latest crew to fly
as part of NASA's Commercial Crew program, which uses
private companies to transport people to and from the orbiting lab.
From right here on US soil.
We've had a great countdown so far.
What a beautiful shot.
The Indian River lagoon
in the foreground and the background.
The Falcon nine rocket, an endurance spacecraft with crew ten on board.
Weather is 95% go.
The only tiny concern is the formation of cumulus clouds.
But as you can see from this view, we don't have many of those around here.
And that's a good thing.
Excitement is starting to pick up as we get
closer and closer to liftoff, and.
Jessica, it's been a good day so far.
Yeah, absolutely.
The weather looks perfect and much to vapor and other Air Force jet pilots.
Delight. No need for umbrellas today.
That's right.
Crew getting comfortable, getting closer and closer.
They're getting excited.
You know, Daryl,
it's been five years since the demo two mission, which was the
the first crewed mission of space X, and that was an interesting time.
That was actually just after I left the ISS.
I left in April of 2020 and demo two occurred in May.
And since then, this well, we've had 11 crewed flights.
This will be the 11th crewed flights we've had.
This will be the 10th, the 10th rotational flight
for crew members after that demo two flight.
So pretty impressive that all of that has happened in that five year period.
And another fun fact, the demo one mission, which was of course,
the mission without a crew for that very first test of the Dragon
and docking to the space station, that was when and was when Anne
McClain was on board for her first mission in 2019.
So she played a very crucial role of getting in Dragon
and doing all of those checkouts
after that vehicle had docked to the space station.
So pretty cool.
Full circle story here of and being up there for that first uncrewed mission
and now in crew ten, the 11th crewed mission in the last five years.
So pretty impressive. How about that?
She saw the first dragon come up and now she's on board the 11th.
And for you two
right there at the beginning, you know, we're on our 10th operational mission.
Mission, as you mentioned.
And now, when you look back,
you think about just being right there at the beginning
of the Commercial Crew program when that dragon, docked at the ice.
It was really exciting for, you know, the entire country
was so thrilled to have the ability to fly to space from American soil again.
Yeah, it was really wonderful to resume that aptitude to send rockets.
And with crew members on board from American soil
again, from here in Florida and of course, still trading off regularly
with our Russian counterparts with Soyuz flights.
So we're still continuing to fly American astronauts on the Soyuz.
And as you see, we have a Russian cosmonaut on the Dragon today.
So really nice that we maintain this spirit
of international cooperation on board the International Space Station.
Especially, as we said, with that 50th
anniversary of Apollo-Soyuz coming up in July.
Another spectacular view.
I think it's going to be a very beautiful launch day for all the people
on the ground here in Florida.
Absolutely.
We are headed in that direction.
And hopefully so with the weather,
because the weather gets a little iffy once we get into the weekend.
So this is a prime opportunity to go.
Just like that Prime
number 73 for expedition 73.
That's right.
Let's grab another quick social question Jessica.
We're with Jessica Meir, NASA astronaut
Mohammed Tarik asks.
Apologies if I didn't get your name correctly.
What lessons from the crew ten mission will influence future
astronaut rescue and contingency planning for the I.s.s.
and beyond?
You know, I think for that one, there isn't really a crew on countdown for crew
readiness will be commencing with fuel bleed in approximately two minutes.
Expect some pressing inventing from the vehicle,
and we can see, the vent team and that fuel bleed
that's happening right now as it, comes off the transporter erector.
Sorry. Go ahead.
Yeah.
So we talked a little bit earlier about how whatever vehicle you launch
on that vehicle remains docked to the International Space Station
as your lifeboat, essentially as a rescue vehicle, even though you
launch and you're not going to land for six months or more,
you have that vehicle there at all times in case anything happens on the space
station, anything happens to a crew member,
though we needed to get the crew home safely,
so we always have that rescue capability from time to time.
As you've seen in the last few years, we do have various situations emerge
if there's a technical issue on a certain vehicle, for example.
And so we do what we do best here at NASA
and that is adapt and reevaluate and replan.
And to me, that is always been the most impressive thing
of working at NASA when I am most impressed of about NASA.
It's when we have these challenges because you, you know, you see NASA
rise to the occasion and do what we do best readapt and be flexible.
And that's the same thing for all of these rescue missions.
You know, we will replan and do whatever we need to do.
Good afternoon.
You're watching live launch coverage of NASA.
And SpaceX is 10th rotational flight to the International Space Station.
I'm NASA's O'Neill and with us again today is NASA astronaut Jessica Meir.
It's great to have you back again.
Thanks, Daryl.
It is wonderful to be here, sending your friends and colleagues up to space
is always the best thing that you can do as an astronaut here on the ground.
So I'm so excited to be here playing a role in all of it.
And a big reason
that you're here to see your good friend Anne McClain off to space.
Liftoff for her and the rest of the crew is at 7:03 p.m.
eastern time from here at launchpad 39 today.
But before we continue our coverage, a quick reminder about Jessica's
experience in space, take a look back to 2019.
Jessica Meir and Christina Cook made history with the first
all women spacewalk, the 221st for space station assembly.
Two years later,
Jessica served as astronaut support person for crew ten or crew two.
Rather.
There you see her number 38 helping the team all the way to the pad.
Then she went over to pad 39 B, where she rehearsed with the Artemis two crew.
A great time with the astronauts was hard,
but this time this crew was practicing to go to the moon.
You know, I really like this video because it shows the enthusiasm
that we all bring to the roles, roles, whether it's a support role
or whether it's a crew itself.
You know, there is nothing better than helping
sending your friends off to space, as I just said.
So one of the most interesting things about our job
as astronauts is doing different things all the time.
It is an incredible time to be an astronaut right now,
where we have so many different vehicles we can launch on the Soyuz
like I launched on the space X Dragon that you're watching here today.
Soon, hopefully coming up next year.
The Artemis two vehicle will launch
and send our first astronauts to an orbit around the moon.
So it's a very exciting time for us.
We certainly have a lot to look forward here on the Space Coast
and for the United States space program.
Some background, though, on today's launch attempt,
it is the second launch attempt for crew ten.
On Wednesday, NASA and SpaceX stood down from the first attempt
after teams discovered a suspected pocket of air trapped in the ground.
Support hydraulic system
use for the clamp arm that you can see there on your screen.
It is wrapped around the Falcon nine rocket and holds it to the launch arm.
Yesterday, ground support teams successfully flushed that hydraulic system
and now it is ready to go for today's launch.
The crew had a little bit of break while they worked on that.
Yeah they did.
The crew was able to relax yesterday.
I think it was a very fortuitous opportunity
because, you know, the day before you launch, they're still probably doing
all of these things that are giving them a little bit of stress.
Dealing with last minute issues.
And then the yesterday they had already done
all those things for the previous launch.
So they had yesterday to really relax and that just a chance to be outside
at the beach house and just take it all in, appreciate some of the sights
and sounds and feels of the Earth before they go to their new home on the ES.
Crew ten will be launching from pad 39 A that you see there.
Big props to our flight operations crew right here at the Kennedy Space Center
for those beautiful views.
You see the helicopter on the left part of your screen orbiting around the pad,
going in circles, and appropriately so here on Pi Day.
What's the crew?
Sorry, I'm sure making an McLean feel right at home to the sweet
sounds of the helicopter in the distance. Absolutely.
A helicopter helicopter pilot herself and all of them pilots inside
the capsule today,
in a little over an hour,
this, spacecraft and rocket will lift off.
So let's take you through the rest of their launch day.
Previously leading up to this moment, after waking up
and having a bite to eat, SpaceX helped crew ten into their suits.
As you can see here, inside the historic crew quarters suit up room,
they also played a card game, a tradition
to use to get their bad luck out of there.
Losing, for the commander and, chief winning.
Then we saw them walk out crew ten waving,
taking the same footsteps as every NASA astronaut
since Apollo 7 in 1968, walking out, greeting the crowd,
getting into their vehicles, and then joining a security escorted
caravan for a 20 minute ride to Launch Pad 39.
And then there they are, looking up and looking out
as they walk down the crew access arm
into their spacecraft on top of the rocket,
and now they are locked and loaded inside the spacecraft,
and we are watching them live while they await the next big milestones
the fueling of the Falcon nine rocket and the arming of the launch escape system.
Throughout this broadcast,
we've been taking your questions from social media, so keep sending them.
Hashtag ask NASA on NASA's YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch platforms.
Also, for those of you watching on NASA's YouTube channel right now, a reminder
to make sure you refresh your player or browser to join our live chat.
Now, at this time, we are expanding our coverage
and would like to welcome SpaceX and NASA commentators joining us live
from Hawthorne, California, where the space Mission team is located.
And a great good afternoon and welcome to both of you.
Thanks, Daryl.
I'm Jesse Anderson, a senior production engineering manager here at SpaceX,
and I'm on a Schneider with NASA communications.
We are excited to be joining you once again from Mission Control here
in Hawthorne.
As we countdown to liftoff of crew ten just over an hour from now,
of course, crew ten is our 10th operational mission
with space flying astronauts for long duration
missions to the International Space Station.
Crew ten will have two first time fliers on board as well as a veteran NASA
astronaut and a veteran Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or Jaxa astronaut.
And the multinational crew represents three different space agencies, with NASA,
Jaxa and Roscosmos all represented in today's crew will fly aboard
the Dragon spacecraft named endurance, which previously flew the crew.
Three crew five and crew seven missions.
Overall, this will be Dragon's 46th visit to the space station
and its 14th human spaceflight mission to the orbiting lab,
which includes NASA's Commercial Crew
Program missions and private astronaut missions with Axiom Space.
We are also celebrating the 23rd anniversary
of the founding of SpaceX today on March 14th,
which also is Pi Day, a celebration of the mathematical constant Pi.
Now, over
the last three plus hours, crew ten has been going through the detailed
process of getting ready for their mission to the International Space Station.
So let's go ahead and take a moment to introduce you to the crew.
In the commander's seat is NASA astronaut Anne McClain.
She's making her second trip to low-Earth orbit.
The Spokane, Washington native and U.S.
Army colonel was selected by NASA as an astronaut in 2013
and has spent a total of 204 days in space, completing two spacewalks
totaling 13 hours and eight minutes outside of the orbiting laboratory.
Next to McClain in the pilot's seat is Nicole
Ayers, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2021.
The Colorado native graduated from the Air Force
Academy in Colorado Springs and is a major in the US Air Force,
and this will be the first space flight for Ayers.
Serving as a mission specialist is Jaxa astronaut Takuya Onishi,
and today's flight will mark Onishi second trip to the space station.
He was selected as an astronaut by Jackson in 2009,
and has logged 113 days in space previously.
To round it all out, the final mission specialist is Roscosmos
cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, and he was selected as a cosmonaut
in 2018 and will also be making his first spaceflight today.
Once on board the International Space Station, crew ten
will briefly become members of expedition 72 and then expedition 73.
In April.
They will conduct space station maintenance and scientific research
to understand material flammability, contributing to future spacecraft
design and study.
How spaceflight affects human physiology and psychology.
The crew will also engage with students worldwide via ham radio
and use of existing hardware with newly integrated software to test
a backup lunar navigation solution.
Today, SpaceX has flown 56 crew members to space
since the demo two mission in May of 2020, which was almost five years ago.
Coming up here at T-minus 45 minutes, we'll be listening in for the team
to report their readiness for propellant load with a final go no go poll.
And so far today continues to be a smooth countdown.
And we're looking good for an on-time liftoff at 7:03 p.m.
eastern time from Launch Complex 39 A and Florida.
Now here on the ground, the teams will be staffed around the clock
in Mission Control, just behind us to monitor Dragon and the mission.
And not just for today, but throughout the entire mission, from liftoff
to the Crew ten's arrival at the space station all the way through splashdown.
When the astronauts return back home
and on console or headset in Mission Control,
which you can see there on your screen, there are six key positions.
The mission director is in charge of
the room and tasked with making real time decisions to ensure mission success.
The person that you may hear talking to the astronauts
is the crew operations and Resources Engineer.
You'll hear us refer to them as the core throughout the broadcast,
and there are four additional team members.
Focus on vehicle systems, including avionics, navigation
and control software, propulsion, life support and communication.
With ground support teams now, apart from Mission Control, our Falcon nine Team
Dragon space cycling orbit tank isolation valves to equalize low flow pressure.
Additionally, I can give you a go to step into section five
when ready report go for launch.
SpaceX I to section five and work.
Just pausing for
some comms between the core and crew ten.
Now, apart from Mission Control, our Falcon nine team is currently located
in the launch and landing control Center at Hangar X,
and we are now less than an hour into launch and they are settling in
for final checkouts, propellant loading and getting ready for launch.
It's up.
Yep. And NASA has its very own set of team members at NASA's Mission
Control Center in Houston, Texas, who have been preparing
the International Space Station for Dragon's arrival.
The teams in Mission Control Houston recently gave their go for launch,
confirming that the station is ready to receive Dragon and the new crew
following liftoff.
Today's flight to the space station will take about 28 hours,
with Dragon flying autonomously the entire way.
Docking is targeted for 11:30 p.m.
eastern, 8:30 p.m.
Pacific, tomorrow, March 15th.
And just like autopilot on a commercial aircraft, the crew always has the ability
to take manual control of the spacecraft if needed.
And before all of that happens, as the booster returns to the launch site
and slows down from supersonic speeds, people in the immediate area may hear
a brief double clap of a thunder like sound known as a sonic boom.
Similar sonic booms like this were her during the return and landing of the Space
Shuttle, and sonic booms like
these are one of the hallmarks of reusable systems like Falcon.
Here's what some of these booster returns have looked and sounded like
on previous missions.
I know a lot of people
will be excited when they hear the sonic boom,
and these are going to provide quite a show.
You're going to hear those sonic booms.
Sonic
booster deployed.
That sonic boom is great for us.
That's such a plan.
Broke the sound barrier.
Taking two separate.
So the two sonic booms here in the room.
Booster landing.
Confirm.
We are now
at T-minus 57 minutes and counting to today's launch.
While we wait, let's check in with NASA's Gary Jordan at Johnson Space
Center to see how things are shaping up at Mission Control in Houston.
Gary, how's it going?
Hey, Jesse.
Hey, Ana. Thanks for having me.
Welcome again to Mission Control
here in the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
We're the hub of human spaceflight at NASA.
And the team here is poised for launch and preparing for the crew to lift off
and begin their journey to the orbiting laboratory
in the homestretch of rendezvous, NASA and space
flight controllers will enter into what's called integrated operations.
Both flight control teams will conduct a series of go no go polls for Dragon.
Endurance is docking to the International Space Station.
Rotation missions like crew ten help NASA continue to maximize
the important research and technology demonstrations made possible
only in the International Space Station's unique microgravity environment.
The space station is critical for NASA to prepare for future commercial low-Earth
orbit destinations and to understand and overcome the challenges
of long duration spaceflight necessary for a long term presence on the moon
and crewed missions deeper into the solar System, including Mars.
Now, here's a closer look at the mission and what crew ten will have
to look forward to during their stay aboard the International Space Station.
The crew ten mission is going to be a rotational mission
to the International Space Station, so we will
launch aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule and the Falcon nine rocket.
I'm just enjoying the a way towards the launch.
Of course, I'm looking forward for the day of launch
and we are going to stay there about a half a year.
So the first goal of crew ten is to continue learning about the Dragon
and the Falcon nine rocket that we're going to be flying on
to enable SpaceX to continue their development of rockets
and even private astronaut missions in the future.
The other mission is to get us safely to the International Space Station
so that we can crew this incredible national orbiting laboratory
that we have and continue the science experiments that we have on going there.
One of the unique characteristics
of the International Space Station is microgravity.
We get to learn how humans and plants and other types of hardware react
in the space environment, in the microgravity environment,
and it helps us to develop all kinds of new
materials, medicines, and it helps us to push our knowledge forward.
The discoveries that we make onboard the International Space Station
then inform what we do on Earth, and it allows us to further
both humankind here on Earth and get to further places in the universe.
So I've often been asked why we explore, and I think it's different for everybody.
When the people are born, they naturally
want to explore the environment, first as babies
and then as kids, and finally as adults.
That's how we expand our world.
That's how we find something new.
Every time that we make a further step, we learn something
and we learn how to adapt. And that is so important to humanity.
And this is really the main things
which drives us forward and helps us to survive as a spaceship.
There are so many unknowns in space and as explorers and as humans,
we want to find out what's in that unknown.
For me, it's the fact that I get to be a small piece of figuring out
what the unknown as I'm taking that next step to get to the moon and to Mars.
In the Artemis program, our ultimate goal is to go to Mars.
But it's not an easy journey, and we face a new challenge.
We must solve it step by step.
I think that's one of the biggest benefits
of the International Space Station or outside of the atmosphere.
And now we don't have the protection of the atmosphere.
What happens
and how do we better prepare our people, our hardware, our food, our water systems
for that deep space exploration that's really important on the
space station that we learn those lessons now when we're in low-Earth orbit.
That way, we know what we need to bring with us
when we go on to the moon with the Artemis program,
one of the things that we do on the air, National Space Station is work
with our international partners all across the world.
I think it's hard to overestimate the value of international cooperation
and space exploration, because we all know that it takes much time and effort.
Space is hard.
It's very challenging.
It's sometimes unpredictable.
And that's why I think cooperation is the key to success.
The International Space Station
wouldn't be international without all of our partners, and our goal
is to be a beacon of hope for all of humankind
so that people can look and say, this is what we can accomplish
when we work together.
T-minus 52 minutes and counting.
We just pulled go for NASA and SpaceX to begin propellant load at T -35 minutes.
A great update there to our milestones.
We now have NASA's Megan Crews live from a nearby launch viewing location here
at Kennedy Space Center. Megan.
Hey. Yeah, back here again today.
And the weather is as beautiful as it was Wednesday.
And the crowd as excited as ever to see liftoff in less than an hour.
Now we again want to bring in Mike Ravenscroft with NASA's commercial
Crew program.
He's on console working the launch today
over at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Mike, great to have you back.
Hi, Megan. Happy to be here.
All right. So again, thanks for stepping off console.
When we spoke during
Wednesday's launch attempt, there was a ground hydraulics issue.
What was done to resolve that to get us to launch today?
Yeah. Megan.
So the team worked hard on really hard on Wednesday
during that first attempt to to to resolve the issue.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to get there.
So the teams, the SpaceX and NASA team met Wednesday.
Evening, Wednesday night and developed a troubleshooting plan,
to to go ahead and restore this, the system back to operational.
So we went ahead and, met
and, Thursday they went off and executed that plan.
They went ahead and opened up some of the valves.
Did some inspections, opened up
some of the valves, and, went ahead and bled the system.
And then they did perform checkouts and, performed the checkouts.
And the system was nominal at that point.
So we got back here today, on launch countdown and,
you know, did some additional checkouts, normal checkouts
that are performed on day of launch and everything's checking out.
Good. That's wonderful to hear.
And it's always great
to see teams coming together to resolve issues to get us to launch.
Now, a CCP launch vehicle systems office manager.
You were also part of keeping an eye on today's booster, correct?
Which is flying for a second time. Yeah.
And so we watched that booster
from the beginning when it starting to be built the whole way
through, production, the whole way through all the testing that's performed,
even before it's, getting that, first launch which occurred
in, occurred in December for the temporary mission.
So we track all that, track all the issues that come out from all that
in the first flight, and we, we review all that data,
and then when it goes into maintenance, for our flight,
we are tracking all that work along with space-x
and ensuring that the, the vehicle is ready, for day of launch
in a safe flight, for the crew to the ice.
And, Mike, last question for you, you know, how do you feel
just being a part of NASA's commercial crew program?
This this is awesome.
I can't imagine myself anywhere else.
This program, I've been here for quite a while, and, you know, this is a family.
You get to work with folks from all over the country,
from California to Texas to to Alabama to here in Florida.
And it's just a family.
And that's how we feel about each other.
We work hard.
We get to work with a lot of, great contractors.
And so, you know, day in and day out, you get to show up
for work and enjoy what you do and do amazing things together.
Mike, thank you so much. We appreciate your time.
Thanks, Mike. Appreciate it.
All right. Let's get back over now to Ana and Jesse in Hawthorne.
Thanks, Megan.
Falcon nine is the first orbital class rocket capable of re flight.
Together, Falcon nine and Falcon Heavy have completed
more than 450 launches in over 383 flights.
And today, the booster will be attempting to land that landing zone one,
which is just down the coast from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
This will be
the second flight of the first stage booster supporting the crew ten mission
rapid reusability drastically reduces launch costs, helps increase launch
frequency, and enables a wide array of new government,
commercial and scientific opportunities in space.
Lowering the cost of access to space is helping take humanity's next steps
into the solar system,
whether in low Earth orbit, interplanetary, or even deep space,
and when costs are lower, government and commercial customers
can launch more missions, which helps accelerate development.
This also helps commercial, satellite, and private research customers afford to
launch more projects of space, which helps stimulate innovation here on Earth.
All of this to say, reusability is the key innovation
that is making space more accessible for the industry as a whole.
And just like the first stage of Falcon nine, Dragon is also reusable,
the reusable Dragon spacecraft has flown people to the International Space Station
13 times, and as we mentioned earlier, today's crew
will fly aboard the same dragon that previously flew with
the crew three, crew five and crew seven missions.
But back to today's mission.
We are coming up on T-minus 48 minutes to launch,
and our teams are carefully moving through the preflight process.
Now, a lot of preparations have brought us to this point, including a dry dress
rehearsal, static fire on Sunday, an initial launch attempt on Wednesday.
Now we did stand down from that attempt due to a hydraulic system issue,
but the teams completed inspections of the ground support hydraulic system
used for the clamp arm supporting the Falcon nine rocket,
and successfully flushed a suspected pocket of trapped air in the system.
Now, all of that hard work brings us to today's launch, and next up in our team
has pulled go for less arm propellant load and launch.
And there
you just heard that the team had pulled go for both prop load and for launch.
So that was the next step in the countdown that we were waiting for.
And that was from the space launch director,
and they were calling up to the crew to let them know that we had received
that go to continue with that prop load.
And then, as we mentioned earlier, the Dragon launch team, as well as key
NASA launch members, are in the launch and landing control center
at SpaceX's hangar X in Florida.
And the launch director,
we'll also check in with the Dragon mission director, referred to as the MD
and the NASA launch manager, to make sure everyone is on the same page
and everyone is ready to move forward again.
There's a lot of teams
and a lot of moving parts to getting a launch off the ground.
And so leading up to the final stages of launch today,
you will hear various check ins on that process.
So right now there on your screen you can see crew ten.
They are on board Dragon waiting to get the green light to stow the crew arm
for the launch and arm the launch escape system, and I we did just hear that go.
So we should start getting a good view about our access.
Are moving away from the spacecraft pretty soon
now. On the range
side of things, the range continues to be go for launch,
monitoring the clearance area surrounding our launch pad,
as well as the air and sea space along the flight corridor.
And as you can see
in your left on the left hand corner of your screen,
the weather is looking great for today's launch.
Overall, weather is trending in the right direction
and we're currently we currently have less than a 5% chance of violation
at our target liftoff time today, which is great.
Our teams will continue to keep an eye on the weather, but,
we'll have a final pre fueling weather briefing,
in about 20s from now at the T
-45 minute mark.
Now, weather is forecasted
to be excellent on the Space Coast heading into today's launch opportunity.
And again, the current forecast is greater
than 95% chance of acceptable conditions at launch.
Now, weather along the Atlantic 45 minutes.
Both control ups
go into lockdown and remain in that state until the launch escape system
is disarmed.
All operators are to remain at their console and maintain a sterile
cockpit until MDA confirms successful disarming of the launch
escape system following orbit insertion or propellant offload.
The event of a scrub
for non-urgent No-Go conditions.
Brief the C or LD and they're probably in the countdown.
Purging issues affecting the safety of the operation
operator shall call hold, hold, hold on a countdown net launch control.
Abort the launch order sequence immediately and proceed.
And they launch.
Abort a sequence at T-minus 10s.
Launch control. Be hands off.
Relying on the automated abort criteria for the remainder of the count.
Operators advise the launch structure with a structural
break up or fire is imminent or occurring per drag and manual escape.
Flight rules.
Launch control.
You may proceed with arming the current for movement.
Crew and retraction.
Starting.
And that was the launch
director performing a briefing with the crew.
Sounds like everything is go for launch, and we're going to start seeing
that crew access arm moving away from the vehicle here shortly.
We should also see propellant load getting underway in just a few minutes as well.
Again, our teams are staffed around the clock and mission
control here in Hawthorne, Mission Control and Houston,
as well as the Launch Control center to monitor Dragon
throughout its entire mission from liftoff all the way
to crew tens arrival at the space station, and then on its return
home to Earth.
And there you're seeing some great shots
of the crew access arm pulling away from Dragon right away. And
clear skies as far as the eye can see.
Perfect weather for today's launch and exciting
over here.
Yeah.
Weather looks amazing over there at pad 39.
You can see that crew access arm still moving.
It'll move all the way to that 90 degrees away from the vehicle.
Crew access, arm extraction complete.
And then we just heard confirmation that the crew access arm
has been fully retracted.
That process is now complete.
Again, the next step in our process leading up to today's launch at 7:03 p.m.
eastern, 4:03 p.m.
Pacific, will be the propellant loading,
and that should be getting underway here shortly.
In the meantime, let's go ahead and check back in with Daryl at NASA's
Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
All right.
Thank you very much, ladies back here with NASA astronaut Jessica Meir as we orbit
the launch pad launch complex 39 today here at the Kennedy Space Center.
Going in circles on Pi Day seems fitting.
Jessica.
Absolutely it does.
This is the day for it.
We've got a few milestones coming up here.
In the next few minutes.
We're going to close our visors at T -39 minutes
and then
start the process of getting that launch escape system armed.
As we just saw, the crew access arm has moved away.
So if there were to be an emergency,
going through the crew access arm is one option.
Up until the point in which the launch escape system is armed.
And then it's off the top of the rocket.
Yeah. That's right.
That launch escape arm could actually swing back in just about 30s.
And during that time, the crew would actually,
be unbuckling their seat belts and getting ready to ingress to egress.
So that time in workout clothes on and the logistics of them.
Copy Dragon you are go for six decimal six arm
launch escape.
Running
these milestones early at this point, which is a good thing.
We heard.
Commander, just keep system is verified.
Armed.
There
we have the verification that the launch escape system is armed.
The high energy system that could be
very much needed in case something were to happen to the rocket.
Yeah, that's something that the astronauts on board can actually hear.
They can hear it being armed.
They get this sort of loud thump that they hear and and of course,
that launch escape system, it consists of eight superdraco thrusters.
It's really it's only used for an abort in this case.
And it's armed two minutes before the loading of the fuel.
And I'm wondering about your thoughts
in this moment, as you hear commander and McClain
get these systems ready, your friend,
your fellow classmate getting ready to go.
Yeah, I think things are getting very real right now.
It's really interesting on launch day.
You know, I know from my own experience,
sometimes you actually have to remind yourself
that it's actually launch day because you have been through
this whole series of readiness and all of these checks
and all the comm checks and all the physical actions.
So many times in various simulations.
I remember on my launch, I really did have to remind myself, I'm
looking at my monitor, I'm
going through all of these different queues and the procedures.
But then I would hear something, maybe the groan of the fuel
in the lines or a swipe, a slight movement of the rocket.
And that was what made me realize, oh, wait a minute, at the end of this one,
I'm not going to be going home and going to dinner.
I will be in space.
So perhaps that realization is kind of setting in
for these for these three astronauts and cosmonaut.
I'm sure it's a little bit different for Anna talk.
We've gone through this gone through a launch before.
Totally new for Nicole and Caryl.
So a really nice blend of experience in that Dragon capsule today,
and a beautiful
scene outside as we head towards
sunset, will be lifting off just before then at 7:03 p.m.
eastern Daylight Time.
Sunset right around 730.
It should make for a beautiful launch for those
who are gathered in the area to watch
the sky
will become lit up as the sun dances
with the exhaust from the Falcon nine rocket.
These launch escape systems that we're talking about are, of course,
a vital component of any vehicle that contains astronauts on board,
and it's something that we hope, of course, to never have to use.
But the few times historically when we have had to use them also provide
such a testament, such a great test of that system.
I remember very well Nick Hague and Alexei
Chin in support on the Soyuz that happened in 2018.
I was in training at the time in Star City, and that abort happened
when they were at about 30 miles up, and they ended up going up to about 50
miles and then landing safely due to the very reliable,
all highly functioning abort system,
search and rescue teams were there to pull them out in about ten minutes.
And a really stressful day.
Of course, for everybody waiting for propellant load.
That was a stressful day for everybody on board and everybody on the ground.
But again, a really nice test to see that these systems are in place for a reason.
And they do work.
Nick Hague went to space that day and came right back.
And fortunately everything went well and he was able to return to the ISS.
And he's up there now.
Yeah, he's up there right now waiting for this mission to join him.
I know that he is very much
looking forward to giving Anne and her crew a big high five, especially
for those eight bald classmates, but really for everybody on board.
We joke in our class that, you know, Nick launched two and a half times, so far
for his two missions to space, but he's got a little bit of extra experience.
We have learned so
much during your time here, Jessica, spending it with us,
giving us your insight and talking about your experiences in spaceflight.
We appreciate it deeply.
Also, the audience appreciates it as they continue to ask questions on NASA.
NASA's social media channels hashtag Ask, NASA, Twitch,
Facebook, YouTube and X Dolores Kiefer asks,
now, can the ground crew talk to the astronauts during fueling?
Yeah they can.
We just heard a call. Go.
And those comm loops are open.
You know, of course we can talk to the crew
if in case of any type of emergency or any type of information
that they need, we have those comm loops open.
Interesting.
Interestingly, speaking about that, the crew
can actually hear the fueling process so they can hear the valves.
They can hear the flow of the of the fuel as well.
So interesting for them to be following
along with the process, can hear it, see it and feel it.
Just a few seconds now before we start propellant load for the Falcon nine rocket.
The launch auto sequence has started.
And here we go.
Tanks are being filled.
Prop load is underway.
A very dynamic time for the astronauts
and the ground crews.
For this countdown today we got a little further and have gone
further than our attempt on Wednesday, which stopped at T -43 minutes.
We are now T -34 minutes and everything is looking good.
The vehicle is go, spacecraft is go ground.
Teams are go.
And now we are taking this rocket.
So this crew is hearing those sounds.
As we mentioned, they can hear the fuel flowing
through the valves and flowing through the pipelines.
And this is a rocket grade kerosene called our rp1 and also liquid oxygen.
That is the fuel for this powerful Falcon nine rocket today,
1.8 million pounds of thrust.
Once the rocket takes off.
Thanks to our Kennedy Space Center flight operations team
for these beautiful helicopter shots.
Doing a great job.
Let's go back now to Hawthorne, California
and join our commentators there.
Right now, I,
we are at t -33 minutes
from launch and getting closer and closer to launching crew ten into space
after the long duration mission is complete, crew ten will be the first NASA
commercial crew mission to target a return splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
NASA and SpaceX have been working together toward certification and readiness
for Dragon recoveries on the West Coast.
Since 2019, Dragon recoveries have primarily occurred off
the coast of Florida.
SpaceX is moving Dragon recovery operations to off the coast of California
to allow Dragon to complete its deorbit before safely jettisoning
the trunk over the Pacific Ocean.
Comparable to the first 21 Dragon missions.
Crew splashdown locations are near Los Angeles, Oceanside, and San Diego.
The recovery vessel Shannon will be stationed in Long
Beach, California to support the new operations
and to establish this capability that improves public safety.
NASA and SpaceX worked for months establishing new sites,
obtaining regulatory approvals, performing engine assignments
and software changes, as well as tabletop exercises and flight rule updates.
It'll be really exciting
to see crew ten come home after they're done with their long duration mission.
But crew nine,
who crew ten will be handing over once they get dock to the space station, will,
of course, still splashdown off the coast of Florida in a few days.
But back to today's mission.
Let's go ahead and learn more from the astronauts flying today.
You know, I often get asked why we explore.
Some people explore because it's exciting to ride on a rocket.
They like the boom.
They like the flying, they like the electronics.
They like to go fast.
Some people want to explore,
to answer questions about the context in which the earth exists.
How old are we?
How many galaxies are there? How big are we?
Are we like a speck of dust on somebody's sleeve,
or are we the biggest thing going out there in the universe?
Curiosity is like the main power that moves us forward.
Space exploration is important to satisfy this, curiosity as we go on to the Moon
and Mars and look at what those, planetary bodies are made of.
We can learn a lot about the Earth itself, and how to better humankind.
I think it's important for us as a species
to expand our boundaries because that's how
we advance our technologies and civilization.
We have to continue to explore, continue to push the boundaries.
And I think really, throughout the history of humankind, we've always explored.
And so when people ask
why we explore, I would like to ask back,
what type of society would we be if we lost that curiosity?
Is that somewhere that we'd want to live?
Space Center in Florida
I'm joined by NASA astronaut Jessica Behr.
So good to have you here.
Here's more about the crew that's going into space today.
I'm Daryl Neil with NASA.
Welcome back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida here with NASA astronaut
Jessica Meir.
Here's more about the crew that's going into space today.
NASA astronaut Anne McClain.
She is your crew ten commander, making her second trip
to low Earth orbit, the Spokane, Washington native and U.S.
Army colonel was selected by NASA as an astronaut in 2013
and has spent a total of 204 days in space and completed
two spacewalks totaling three hours 13 hours rather, and eight minutes.
She's very competent and, as you've described,
a very excellent leader, absolutely a natural leader.
And it is so thrilling to be here watching her do what she was born to do
and leading this crew to space.
Today, sitting next to her is the pilot
for crew ten, NASA astronaut Nicole Ayres.
She was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2021.
The Colorado native graduated from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs
and is a major in the U.S. Air Force.
This is her first space flight, and she's pretty excited about it.
Absolutely.
Takuya Onishi
He is the Jaxa astronaut
serving as a mission specialist.
Today's flight will mark Onishi second trip to the space station.
He was selected as an astronaut by Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency in 2009, and has logged
113 days in space, and he will eventually be the station commander.
Yeah, that will be a very nice moment to see as and hands over
those leadership reins over to talk transfer of controls from her as the
the commander of the space
vehicle over to talk to be commander of the space station.
So great opportunity for leadership for both of these experienced crew members.
And the second mission specialist is Kirill Peskov.
The Roscosmos cosmonaut was selected as a cosmonaut in 2018
and will be also making his first spaceflight today.
This is really the
ultimate of Carol's very curious and adventurous nature.
I hear he loves to discover all aspects of and areas of Russia
and the US now in his SUV, and he is always exploring,
so this will be the ultimate of his exploration today for him
and for all of his crew and all four of these crew members are pilots.
They speak that common language of aviation.
That must be comforting to all of them.
I think so, and I think it has brought them closer together as a crew.
They can almost read each other's minds.
They say sometimes, you know, they don't even need words.
And they have this shared sentiment, this shared language.
It makes them a very synchronous, cohesive crew.
And for the past year and a half, that crew has been training diligently
to be ready to help conduct science investigations.
Aboard station, the crew will perform biomedical research
and technology demonstrations over the four month expedition.
Commander, and McClain is participating in the Canadian
Space Agency Space Experiment involving heart health.
This head man is actually connected to sensors throughout my body,
and they are collecting
real time data on my heart rate, oxygen saturation, and my respiratory rate.
Imagine the day where you go see your doctor
because you're concerned about your heart health,
and they give you these sensors to wear, and they get this massive, comprehensive
look at your cardiovascular health over multiple days, doing multiple activities.
Another science investigation on board involves
tiny materials inspired by our own DNA that could help be used here on Earth
with those people who suffer from arthritis
in their knees.
With me.
Let's go back to Megan Cruise, who is standing by
with NASA Acting Administrator Janet Petro.
Yeah, that's right, acting administrator since January.
And then, of course, before that center director here at Kennedy since 2021.
And how does it feel to be back here and to watch another crewed launch?
Oh my God, I can't Megan, tell you how excited I am to be here.
And I was here the whole week.
You know, we had unfortunately had the scrub on Wednesday.
But I cannot explain the feeling of coming back home.
You know, I love this center. I love this workforce.
I love the mission that we have here at the center.
So it's very exciting.
You know, in D.C.,
it's not my normal job jar down here at the Kennedy Space Center.
Being center director, where, you know, I had the workforce in the mission.
So I'm super excited to be back here and to be able to witness
this launch later tonight. Yes, absolutely.
Launch is going to happen here shortly.
And, you know, I know we've been talking about this
a lot in the broadcast that every single member of crew
ten is a pilot, not a pilot, not yes, actually
a pilot, as are you.
Did you get to talk to the crew? I see that they find your hat.
I absolutely did, so I got to see him a couple times.
So when they landed
at the landing facility here, I got to see them and greet them.
And that's where they gave me this hat, which is so cool.
I've never gotten a present from a crew before, so crew ten hats.
Hats off to them for giving me.
And they did sign it.
And then, on Tuesday we got to go what's called Behind the Glass tour
and, talk to them.
They're behind the glass because they're in quarantine,
and we got to talk to them and ask them questions
and talk to them and just see how they're doing.
And so that's pretty special.
So I got to talk to all of them, all of those pilots there.
And they are super excited ready to go. Yeah.
And speaking of excited,
you know, we have NASA astronauts Sonny Williams, Butch Wilmore, Nick Hague.
Plus Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Corbin off.
They're going to come back, shortly after crew ten arrives on station,
during a live press conference from station recently,
Butch and Sunny said they're going to miss space.
Absolutely.
Because you got to think about the astronauts.
And by the way, last week, from Johnson
Johnson's Space Center's Mission control, I did get to talk to Butch,
sunny Nick, and a little bit to Don Pettit there.
So I got to talk to them, as well.
But you got to figure they, you know, the to be selected and trained
and and the passion that they have to go to space,
you know, for them, it's got to be this is what they do for a living.
This is what they want to do.
And in fact, I would bet they might have some mixed emotions,
mixed emotions for leaving.
Because, you know,
every time you get to go to space, which is what all astronauts want to do,
you never know.
It might be your last time because you might not be selected
for another mission or whatever.
So I bet they have mixed, mixed emotions.
Leaving their colleagues up there at the space station.
I'm sure they're anxious to get home and put their, feet on Earth
and spend time with their family, but I think that they have enjoyed their
time in space.
You know, when I said behind the glass, to Butch and Sunny some,
you know, a while ago, I asked him and they, they had told me that they hope
they get to stay a little bit longer than eight days in space.
I was at there behind the glass, and I don't know
if they meant to stay as long as I got to, but I know that they are a valued member
of this expedition crew, and they've done amazing research.
They've done, spacewalks together.
I think Sonny now holds a woman, holds the record
for the most amount of time in the vacuum of space.
So I they have to be very, very proud of what they've accomplished.
They were very much integrated as a crew and did a lot of,
work, on the
station resource research and science experiments.
And so, yeah, I think they, I think they're they're going to miss space.
I think so. Well, Janet, no mixed emotions here.
It was great seeing you.
I'm going to put this in a jar of memories of today because this is wonderful.
And we're about to say launch.
All right. Thank you Megan. All right. Bye bye.
All right. We'll send it back to Daryl and Jessica.
All right.
Thank you both.
And just behind them, as you saw on that shot, was the Vehicle Assembly Building,
a very iconic building here at NASA where we recently reached
a major milestone in NASA's Artemis program.
That's, of course,
preparing for the first crewed mission around the moon in over 50 years.
Engineers finished stacking the twin solid rocket boosters for Artemis two.
These 177ft tall boosters
will provide most of the 8.8 million pounds of thrust
needed to launch four astronauts on a ten day lunar journey.
There's a shot of the core stage, which they're starting to work on now.
Since
November, crews have used a massive crane to lift and assemble
those booster segments. They're each packed
with avionics and motors that will safely detach after launch.
Now, with the completion of that, they're going to focus on the SLS.
Artemis two will carry NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina
Cook, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a mission around the moon.
So here's Jeremy now with a little more
about that.
Hey everyone.
I'm Canadian space Agency astronaut Colonel Jeremy
Hansen, mission specialist for the Artemis two mission.
I'm here at the Johnson
Space Center here in Houston, Texas, where we normally do most of our training.
But every once in a while, we'd like to change it up a bit.
Read.
Victor Christin and I recently spent several days in Iceland
training in our spacesuits for hiking gear to study its geology and surroundings.
Why Iceland?
Well, as you can see, it has a similar landscape
and terrain to the moon, with various volcanic rocks like basalts
and breeches, and has limited to no vegetation.
The Nordic island has been a lunar training site
for NASA astronauts since the days of the Apollo missions.
My crew mates and I teamed up with scientists and geology experts
to explore the huge boulders,
formations and volcanic craters across the lava fields.
During our journey, we stopped at various spots to discuss what we observed.
Some of the really fine material is compacting into what, like the glue
holding this together,
and even tested different types of tools to collect rock samples.
Although we won't be landing on the moon during our mission, as fieldwork
and navigation practice will allow us
to make informed observations when passing the lunar surface
and pave the way for future Artemis crew training.
And that's your Artemis moon minute.
For more Artemis updates, scan
the QR code on your screen right now or visit NASA.gov.
Forward slash Artemis hyphen
Roman numeral two or II.
You don't have to worry
about getting updates there, though, because Jessica, you are friends
and former classmates with both Victor Glover and Christina Cook.
Yeah, that's right, they are my astronaut classmates, like brothers and sisters.
And it has been so exciting to see this Artemis journey.
I was here for the Artemis one launch and that just made it all so real.
We saw the hardware, we saw the vehicle, we saw the launch, and we knew that
the next time that vehicle launch, it would be with my friends
and colleagues onboard.
So it was an incredibly exciting moment for all of us as astronauts.
That launch coming in February of 2025, currently scheduled on the calendar.
Let's go back now to SpaceX and Hawthorne, California.
Thanks, Daryl.
As we continue to countdown, let's take a closer look at the vehicles
that will be taking crew ten to the International Space Station today.
Falcon nine is a two stage rocket developed and manufactured by SpaceX,
known for its safe, reliable, and cost effective access to space.
It's also the first orbital class rocket capable of reflate
and sitting at the top of Falcon nine.
Dragon and its trunk stand over 26ft tall.
There are two windows on the spacecraft, plus one underneath the nosecone.
The nosecone opens shortly after launch to expose the forward bulkhead,
thrusters, and docking mechanism that will connect with the space station.
Dragon's trunk holds solar cells, which power Dragon while it's in
free flight, and the trunk can also carry unpressurized cargo,
and a Dragon is played a significant role in advancing our future in space
by safely transporting crew to and from the space station.
There are currently four Dragon spacecraft supporting human spaceflight
missions that have docked to the station.
There you can see them on your screen
that is endeavor, resilience, endurance and freedom.
Now designed to be the safest spacecraft ever flown, Dragon is capable
of carrying up to seven passengers to and from Earth orbit and beyond,
and Dragon has 16 Draco thrusters that can be used in space to help
navigate the spacecraft to its destination,
each providing 90 pounds of force
that doesn't include the eight Superdraco thrusters used for an abort,
which are no longer active once the crew is in orbit.
Dragon has flown 49 times with 15 human spaceflight missions since 2020,
when Dragon became the first private
spacecraft to take humans to the International Space Station.
In that time, Dragon has flown over 1000 experiments
to space and 56 crew members representing 14 different countries.
Dragon has proven to be a versatile spacecraft.
It can autonomously dock to the space station when outfitted with
the International Space Station Docking Adapter, as it is for today's flight,
when it's not going to the space station and in free flier
mode, the docking adapter can be swapped out for a cupola.
Another option that we have is the Skywalker hardware, which supports
extravehicular activities as the crew used during the Polaris
Dawn mission.
Now continuing
down the vehicle, we do have the second stage.
The second stage is powered by a single Merlin vacuum engine
or Am VAC engine, which is optimized to perform in the vacuum of space.
After stage separation, the end vac will ignite and carry
Dragon to its target orbit.
Now, the Falcon nine first and second stages are connected
by the black inner stage, which houses the engine
and the system that decouples the two stages during stage separation,
and below
that is, the first stage load has started.
Good Carlisle stage two LOX loading has begun.
Below that is the first stage, which is powered by nine Merlin engines.
These nine Merlin engines provide the initial thrust to lift Space-X
reporting that we continue to track no issues with Dragon or Falcon
proceeding to launch.
That Dragon copy?
Great news.
Just calling out that we're tracking no issues.
These nine Merlin engines provide the initial thrust to lift Falcon
nine off of the ground through the lower, thicker parts of the Earth's atmosphere.
Now, each of these Merlin 1D engines delivers about 190,000 pounds of thrust
at sea level, which gives Falcon nine a combined 1.7 million pounds of thrust.
And after stage separation, stage one will return to Earth
for recovery and reuse on a future mission.
Using a combination of the Merlin C level engines and the four titanium grid
fins located near the top of the booster, which will guide it during its
reentry and landing.
The Falcon nine first stage is also equipped for landing legs
that deploy and allow for vertical landing on a droneship or landing pad.
Now, today, we will be attempting to return the booster to land at Landing
Zone one.
The second stage will power Dragon into its initial low Earth orbit
before separating, leaving Dragon to continue its journey
to the space station using its own thrusters about 40s
after separation, Dragon's Nosecone deploy sequence will begin exposing
the guidance navigation controls that help Dragon autonomously fly to the space
station, with T zero coming up in just under 15 minutes.
Our teams are doing a series of system checks to ensure Dragon
and Falcon nine are ready to go to control,
and we are still looking good for an on the time launch today.
The Dragon and Falcon nine continue to be healthy
as we continue to listen and watch the countdown.
Our teams are preparing the vehicle for flight.
Propellant.
Propellant loading of both our Rp1 and liquid oxygen began at T -35 minutes,
and we also heard the call
a few minutes ago that the launch escape system is armed.
The launch escape system is designed to propel Dragon away from Falcon nine.
In the event of an emergency during launch.
Now the range, which is monitoring the keep out zones,
among other key flight requirements, also continues to report no issues
and they are go to support today's wants and weather also continues to look good.
You can see it there on your screen.
Clear skies and we are still tracking a roughly
less than 5% chance of violation at our target.
Liftoff time of 7:03 p.m.
eastern, 4:03 p.m. Pacific.
And as you heard earlier, we're continuing to be optimistic
that we're going to maintain these good conditions into launch.
And as a reminder, today we have an instantaneous launch window
driven by our planned rendezvous point,
the point at which Dragon and Station will meet in orbit.
The station is orbiting the Earth
at more than 17,000mph, and Dragon needs to catch up.
That means we have to deliver Dragon to the correct orbit by timing its trajectory
relative to the orbiting laboratory, so that they are in the same place in
orbit at the same time.
So precise liftoff time is crucial for hitting that rendezvous point.
And at this point, if we hear a hold for any reason,
we would have to stand down and target our backup launch opportunity,
which is Saturday, March 15th at 6:41 p.m.
eastern, 3:41 p.m.
Pacific.
But again, everything and all the systems continue to be go.
And for now,
we're going to go ahead
and turn it over to Gary at the Johnson Space Center for a quick status
update from Houston.
Hey, thank
you, Ana, back here in the International Space Station flight
control room and NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, teams continue
to work around the clock to monitor activities aboard the orbital outpost.
Leading the teams inside the room is Flight Director TJ Kremer,
the team in Mission Control Houston, the team in Hawthorne,
and the astronauts aboard the space station will track the autonomous
docking of Dragon Endurance when they enter joint operations.
This will happen when the spacecraft enters
the approach ellipsoid, the invisible boundary stretching four by two
by two kilometers that helps us monitor all arriving and departing spacecraft,
is essentially the neighborhood of the space station.
Once docked, crew members in both Dragon and aboard the station
will perform a series of leak checks, then work to open the spacecraft's
hatch for crew ten to float into the station and begin their stay.
We anticipate that
the hatch will be opened about an hour and a half after the docking.
When they enter the orbital outpost, crew ten will be greeted
by the rest of their 70 expedition 72 crew
and will come together for opening remarks.
That's all from us here in Mission Control.
As the anticipation continues to build for launch in under 20 minutes.
How's it looking on the Space Coast, Daryl?
We're looking great, Gary.
Looking fantastic.
We've got fantastic weather. 95% go.
You see the beautiful shot outside of the pad there, the rocket
and the spacecraft when it launches today, the crew aboard the ISS.
The destination for today's launch will be about
260 miles over top of the west coast of Australia.
So too far to see the launch.
It's nice to see a rocket go off when you're on the ice,
but unfortunately it won't be the case this time.
Oh yeah, it is a wonderful thing to see
when your crewmates are heading towards you.
I remember the photograph that Christina Cook of took of my Soyuz
approaching the station, and it was one of these
incredible opportunities that you could see the outline
of the trajectory of the Soyuz as it approached it.
It's such a beautiful image.
It's a shame they won't be able to see it, but
they will be so excited to have their crewmates come on board.
And we're about to hear from the crew here before launch.
We'll hear from them after launch.
It will be special. They have some important things to say.
Oh, absolutely.
I am very excited to hear these final thoughts coming from the entire crew
right before launch. Okay.
All right.
With that, we'll send it back to SpaceX in Hawthorne, California.
Thanks, Daryl.
Our next major milestone on the countdown event,
will be around the T -ten minute mark, which is just in about five seconds
when Falcon nine launch commit criteria get checked by computers.
Dragon, SpaceX
confirm crew displays are configured for launch.
SpaceX X
Dragon displays are configured for launch and with think.
This is the pilot. Nicholas.
And on behalf of Christian, we'd like to say that today
we celebrate the countless
individuals all over the world that have made this journey possible
to the engineers, instructors, flight controllers,
scientists, and leaders who worked tirelessly to get us here.
Thank you for your dedication to the safety and success of this mission,
and a special
thank you to our friends and family for your unwavering love and support.
This mission is a testament of what humans can achieve when we work together.
Go crew ten.
Such great words
from the crew again and some cheering going on.
You can see that on your screen.
Next copy from the entire SpaceX team here.
It's been a pleasure working together to prepare for this mission
and from all of us.
Good luck.
Godspeed.
Go crew ten and enjoy the ride.
Great comms.
That was from our core here in Hawthorne in Mission Control.
There are many systems in place to ensure that the rocket
and the crew are both safe leading up to lift off and during flight.
And now that we are in terminal count, our teams are performing
those final checks before launch and coming up here
in just a few minutes, we will start having that stage one engine chill start.
And now we're just over eight minutes away from launch again.
Today's ride to orbit will be about nine minutes,
which is from the time of liftoff to the second stage.
Cut off
and then Dragon and the second stage will continue to coast for a few minutes
after that. Prior to separation.
Just like that, I think you'll hear
some performance calls along the way as we get into the final countdown.
And then after liftoff.
And these are SpaceX's flight controllers reporting on trajectory,
speed, booster performance, and other key milestones.
Since some of the call outs you will hear after liftoff, or a
combination of letters and numbers, which will mark different abort events
throughout the flight up the eastern seaboard, the first two are one Alpha
and one Bravo, which are abort modes available while the first stage is firing
and then the next round of numbers and letters.
Third, you'll hear R two alpha through to echo,
though you'll only hear the two alpha call on the public loops,
and those will come into play once the second stage kicks in,
and then diverting a little bit from the other naming system,
you will hear the call out Shannon, which refers to Shannon Ireland,
and this call means the crew could target off the coast of Ireland
if they needed to abort late in the second stage burn, along with
and you will continue to hear those different call outs,
along with key performance call outs from the guidance,
navigation and Control Officer along with the propulsion lead.
We're now just under seven minutes away from launch.
Engines are calling in for flight.
And we just
heard that confirmation that the stage one engine chill has started.
Yeah. Exactly.
That that call out
is because we are flowing a little bit of liquid oxygen into the engines.
That's to help prepare, the vehicle or the engines
for the full flow of liquid oxygen into the engines that make sure
that we don't shock the system at that full flow.
Now we are still loading lip.
Excuse me.
We now at liftoff.
Falcon nine is consuming about 700 gallons of fuel per second.
So engine chill helps us prevent the shock to get
into the engine.
So can
we have passed that t -seven minute mark?
Next, call out will be stage one.
Our P1 loading complete, which we just heard that,
and, the
one instance of kerosene or rocket fuel that will propel the crew into orbit.
All of that, our P1 is now fully loaded into the rocket.
And since we previously heard that, that, second stage loading was completed,
we are still loading the liquid oxygen or LOX onto the first and second stages.
And this is about oxidizer needed and combined with intensified,
kerosene that just finished loading the r P1 liquid propellant,
needs an oxidizer to combine with in order to ignite
coming up in just under 30s at that T -five minute mark,
we will hear the call for Dragon to configure for terminal count
and then transition over to internal power.
Tanks are pressing for stomach retraction.
Greg, because you go for terminal count
there.
We just heard that call out for terminal count.
So now Dragon on board computers will take control of the spacecraft.
And we also heard that the propellant tanks on Falcon nine are getting ready
to pressurize, adding some additional structural supports.
The rocket as we get ready for that strong back to retract.
And that strong back provides access to Falcon nine,
fueling fuel lines started
at strong back. Lower has now started.
And again, that strong back provides access to Falcon nine fueling lines
and umbilical for both propellant load and the different gases being loaded.
Board.
And what you should see on your screen is there's
those clamp arms that are around the second stage just below Dragon.
They're going to open up once they're fully open
and that strong back or the T can begin to recline away from the vehicle.
Now initially we are going to
have climate t just about two degrees away from the vehicle.
And then we will fully move to the T about 45 degrees
away up at T zero.
And there may be a little hard
to see on your screen, but the clamp arms are opening up there.
There's a better view.
Looks like the clamp arms are now fully open,
so that T will begin to move away from the vehicle.
Very slow and slight,
but just enough to get to two degrees
away from the vehicle
and then coming up in less than 30s at the T -three minute mark.
The first stage liquid oxygen or LOX load will complete
and we'll continue to chuck through a couple more fueling milestones,
including one around the T -two minute mark before
a flight where we'll hear liquid oxygen loading is complete.
On the second stage.
And now you see all of those white clouds on your screen.
Those are clouds of vapor, and they're completely normal.
And we'll see them continue to build up as we get closer to the launch.
This is because liquid oxygen is super chilled,
so a little of it will boil off in the warmer Florida air.
Yeah.
Stage one LOX load complete
gray color out there.
Stage one.
And on.
Putting liquid oxygen on to stage two.
And that'll wrap up here at the T -two minute mark.
Just about 20s from now.
And once we've finished propellant loading,
that will mean that 1 million pounds of our rp1 and liquid oxygen
will be loaded onto Falcon nine here,
just under 10s to.
Stage two LOX load complete.
We just heard confirmation at this stage two liquid oxygen loading is now complete.
We are under two minutes away from launch.
Gas closeout has also begun, so we're, now isolating all of the field lines
for the different gas systems from that auto idle rocket.
And those gases will then get vented overboard through umbilical
and then strong back.
And you just heard that call out that, Dragon is an
expect loud venting.
But you can hear that venting.
Now obviously rockets are very loud and the sound can impart pressure loads
back on the rocket itself.
The ton of water absorbs and prevents, prevents
the sound from hitting the structure and reverberating back onto the rocket.
And that call out for auto idle puts the rocket in a state to flight
computers understand before it takes over,
making sure the transition to Final Countdown is smooth
and all the flight computers on board are in sync and configured up
for launch.
Falcon nine is startup, and now we just heard the Falcon
and I start our countdown and end the final countdown.
Less than a minute to go, and at the time of launch,
the space station will be fine.
260 statute miles over the west coast of Australia.
Thanks to go for launch.
And great call out.
Search and copy. Go to launch.
Great call out that were go for launch.
And we do have a large crowd here in front of my team.
30s waiting to launch crew ten
take off today.
T-minus 15.
T-minus ten.
I think five, six.
Five.
Four. Three. Three.
Two. One.
Ignition and liftoff.
Go, go after crew ten.
Rocket.
Copy.
Went out for liftoff as crew ten now.
Feels good. Range.
They station's 1.7 million pounds of thrust
now propelling Falcon nine and internet launch.
Continue to go. Good call out on the third stage.
Performance so far.
We're now 40s into today's flight.
Power and telemetry. Nominal.
Continuing to get good performance
while outstanding control down.
And we are throttling down the engines in preparation for Max-Q.
What great timing that was.
We just passed through Max-Q.
That's the largest structural load that vehicle will see on ascent
vehicle.
Supersonic main.
Stage one throttle up.
And now just over one minute and 10s into today's flight,
traveling, more than 1400 miles per hour in one Bravo.
And we just heard that one. Bravo.
Which means we're in the second and final abort mode for the first stage,
continuing to get good performance, and the crew already pulling over two GS.
Next step, we'll have a couple of events happening in rapid succession started.
First will be that engine chill on the second stage and back engine,
which we just heard,
and then we'll have Meco or main engine cut off for the nine engines.
On the first stage, we'll cut off ahead of the first and second stages.
We'll be separating from one another.
Then the single Merlin vacuum engine on the second stage will ignite
and continue to carry crew ten to orbit, while the first stage begins its journey
back to Earth.
Now we're just two minutes into today's flight.
The vehicle is traveling just under 4000mph.
We're just about 20s
away from those events that honor just mentioned.
The nine Merlin engines will shut down here
in just about 10s for me to
stage separation.
And CS one.
Main engine cutoff Space-X Dragon.
Stage separation.
Confirmed copy two.
Alpha.
Greg Paul has an incredible views there.
On your left hand screen in your left hand screen, you can see a view
from stage one.
And an extremely excited fan here in Hawthorne.
Awesome views of that respect.
Burn on the first stage, as well as the back engine igniting on the second stage.
Great views there.
Now the booster isn't as loose back burn.
This is the first of three burns as it makes its way back down to earth.
This will last about 45 seconds and the crew ten crew is still on board.
Dragon attached to Falcon nine second stage,
but you can see there on your right hand screen.
And we're
now, three minutes and 20s into today's flights.
The vehicle is traveling about 60 500mph.
They are on their way to the space station.
And we did have that confirmation, coming up of the booster back shut down.
And then coming up and at the 86
minute mark.
Coming up
and there we have our first images of the crew inside
the Dragon spacecraft as they make their way into orbit.
Next Dragon SpaceX nominal trajectory,
continuing to get good call outs.
SpaceX Dragon topping nominal
stage two continues beyond power with, And it's firing.
And so we get to that second stage engine cutoff
around the nine minute mark of flight, about five minutes.
Flight to go before Dragon will be flying free.
There's no.
Some cool views there on your left hand screen.
That's the first stage booster as it's making its way back down to Earth.
This is,
ground tracking camera getting these awesome views.
And on the right hand side of your screen, you can see that lone
Merlin vacuum engine of the second stage.
Or continuing to get good performance on the second stage.
And the cruise globes will dip right when we hit the separation
events, and it's going to continue to build up until then.
Dragon SpaceX nominal trajectory.
Nominal.
We're now at five minutes,
and today's flight of with the liftoff at 7:03 p.m..
Pacific 403 7:03 p.m.
eastern, 4:03 p.m. Pacific.
Continuing to get good call out so stage one makes its way back to Earth
and stage two continues to fire, propelling Dragon into orbit.
And if you're just
now joining us, the four members of crew ten
launch from Launch Complex 39 here at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
And they're currently on board Dragon,
still attached to Falcon nine second stage, which you're
seeing there on your right hand screen on your left hand screen.
The first stage vehicle is making its way back down to earth.
It already completed the first of three burns as the boost back burn, and
the next event coming up for that vehicle is going to be the entry Burn Dragon.
SpaceX nominal trajectory.
Great call outs there.
That entry burn is coming up.
Dragon copy nominal.
That entry burn is coming up here and just under 20s
will reignite three of those nine Merlin 1D engines to help
slow the vehicle down as it makes its way back into the Earth's atmosphere.
We're now just
over six minutes into today's flight, as Dragon and Second Stage
continue traveling at over 12,000mph, making their way into orbit
and on the way to the International Space Station.
There we just saw on the screen it was very quick,
but we had the entry burn, which we got some cool views of that
from the ground, which is awesome.
Now the next event coming up will be the landing burn
for the first stage that's coming up here in about 30s Dragon.
SpaceX nominal trajectory.
Again, great call outs for Dragon.
Phenomenal.
Confirmation there from the crew as they continue to make their way into orbit.
Now, seven minutes into today's flight, the first stage
making its way back down to Earth and the second stage continuing to fire.
This is an
awesome view of see if we can see the center
engine relight for that landing burn here in a few seconds.
There's that landing burn.
Let's watch this.
Falcon nine touches down on landing zone one.
You get.
The crowd here is excited to see if they can
then touch down landing zone one.
And now that the first stage has made its way back to Earth,
we're about a minute away from the second engine cutoff,
which we're expecting around the nine minute mark of today's flight.
Myself,
we're continuing to get good call outs
and, Dragon and all of the systems on the vehicle are performing as expected,
just over eight minutes into today's flight, traveling
more than 21,000mph.
All right,
terminal got its.
Hearing good call outs
about 30s away from that second engine cutoff.
And then shortly after that, about a minute or so later, we will have,
worbla insertion.
Effects.
Dragon. Shannon.
Space-X. Copy. Shannon.
That call out there for Shannon.
And that is the call out for Shannon Ireland, which is the final abort
stage for the second stage off the coast of Ireland. It's
standing by for a second engine cutoff
and back shut down.
Dragon SpaceX nominal orbit insertion.
And there we are.
Copy that. We heard confirmation.
Cape system disarmed.
Good confirmation of orbital insertion.
Crew ten is now well on their way to the International Space Station.
Following a 9.5 minute flight uphill.
Now the second stage is preparing for dragon separation here,
which should happen, shortly in about ten 15 seconds is what we're expecting.
Now. We're preparing for
stabilizing the second stage so that we can have a smooth separation.
And there you can see
on the left hand side of your screen.
The crowd is going wild.
There you can see that
dragon separation, that second stage making its way.
And dragon is now flying through
ten minutes entity's flight.
That was about a minute after we had that second engine cut off
and orbital insertion.
It looks like a good separation.
Good rates.
Dragon now flying free.
There on the right hand side of your screen,
you can see some first images of crew ten inside the Dragon Endurance spacecraft.
Since they're now successfully in orbit.
Dragon SpaceX Chief engineer on countdown one.
On behalf of the entire Falcon team,
we thank you for flying with Falcon and wish you a great mission.
Over to Elder.
It was an honor flying with you this evening.
We wish you well on your journey and give crew nine our best.
Thank you for flying SpaceX.
SpaceX
Dragon and Commander and McClain, thank you
to all of the teams from across the world who contributed to the launch today.
Spaceflight is tough. The humans are tougher.
Days like today are made possible only when people choose
to do the harder right over the easier runs.
Build relationships, choose cooperation, and believe
in the inherent goodness of all people across the world.
My family and friends, without you, I would not be here to explore boldly.
Let's gracefully go through ten and over to pilot
Nikolas.
Nikolas again, we're not the first ten minutes
to get to orbit, and we wouldn't be here without the bravery and hard
work of those who have paved the way for human spaceflight.
We're now getting a perspective reverse
without borders and get to revel in the connectedness of humanity.
I would be remiss to not once again acknowledge those who helped me get here,
to this wonderful view and this perspective.
To the teachers, coaches,
fellow
officers, fellow teammates, Raptor Nation,
to my friends and family that encouraged my dreams from the start.
Thank you.
I wouldn't be here without you.
And this is mission specialist Technical Odyssey.
I want to say a huge thank you to NASA and SpaceX,
especially the homecoming queen, for the successful launch,
and we are looking forward to the ride to the International Space Station.
That's normally I'd have
thought there was cumulative knowledge and
was correct.
And it's
such an exciting moment.
I will now hand the mic over to the mission
specialist materials.
Thanks a lot on that and space for this wonderful writes.
And I want to say a couple of words in Russian for the introduction
of, so. Jim.
So yeah. Michaela forgot. Okay.
There are three other
especially about
Soyuz, give you, you know, three
and six.
But she said go to the Masato as well.
Yeah. Come on, loosen up.
Get up there.
The companion up, you know,
and also which we knew he could just let us see what him.
Yeah.
If that's a gift.
Thank you.
Crew ten. At this time, I can report now.
Dehumidifier activation and service section. Great.
Go checkouts.
Space.
Experience.
Hobbies.
And such great words
from crew ten, as well as the core here in Hawthorne.
In Mission Control.
We also got confirmation that the nose code deploy is underway.
The six hooks that hold the nosecone in place during launch.
During the launch, innocent portions have to retract,
and then the nose cone will be able to start to swing open and deploy.
Now this uncovers
a number of critical systems for the flight up to the space station,
including the forward bulkhead thrusters and the docking hatch and
our. Pausing
in case there were going to be any comms.
And we did have, good confirmation, good checkouts
of the 12 Draco thrusters around the service section.
Now for goats.
Go for to go after we get the nosecone open
and then the eclipse,
the environmental control and life support system activated inside of Dragon.
Now, soon the crew will be able to get their visors open
and get out of their suits and settle in for the ride to the space station.
And now we're just waiting for confirmation that the nosecone
has fully deployed with all of the hooks open.
But just to recap a little bit, we did have a successful liftoff of crew ten.
About 18 minutes ago at 7:03 p.m.
eastern, 4:03 p.m.
Pacific, and following an approximately nine minute
ride after liftoff, we had that orbital insertion and Dragon and Crew
ten were flying free and well on their way to the International Space Station.
They now have an approximately 28 hour journey
before they do reach their destination of the space station,
and that docking is targeted for tomorrow, March 15th at 8:30 p.m.
Pacific, 11:30 p.m.
eastern, to the forward facing port of the station's Harmony module.
Between now and then, Drake
Dragon will perform a series of burns as it catches up to the space station,
and that first burn will be a phase burn about 30 minutes from now at 4:52 p.m.
Pacific 7:52 p.m. eastern.
And the nosecone
is about 75% open at this point.
Human spaceflight has come so far in the last five years with Dragon.
In addition to flying people, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft
also enables researchers the opportunity to fly critical science to orbit.
And so far, SpaceX and Dragon have carried over 1000 research experiments
to and from low-Earth orbit, both to the International Space Station
and on our free flier missions, from DNA sequencing
to 3D printing studies enabled by Dragon and the Space Station test,
a Dragon and the space station test a variety of technologies,
systems and materials
that will be needed for future long duration exploration missions.
Now, every mission yields critical science and research and learnings
that help make life both on Earth and in space better.
And flights like today's help us continue to lay this foundation for our future
among the stars and continue our mission to make life Multi-Planetary.
Once, crew ten does arrive to the International Space Station,
they will, of course, partake in some additional science and research.
They will have over 200 experiments that they will contribute
to during their time aboard the International Space Station.
Again, we're just standing by for confirmation
that that nosecone has fully deployed and all.
And we may also get some additional look, inside the cabin of the crew.
As we patiently wait
for those views, we are trying to see if we can get some views.
We were seeing some views from the second stage.
Now, this looks like it might be
a view from the forward
Dragon base.
Nominal nosecone opening and forward bulkhead.
Draco checkouts.
This extra space
to confirm the nominal eight course activation and go for visors.
And we heard confirmation that the nosecone
has fully deployed, and that the crew is now able to lift their visors.
And there again, we're seeing some views inside the Dragon Endurance spacecraft,
with crew ten on their way to the International Space Station pay
per view or go to open visors.
Having
a great cause there.
They're going to open visors, which means that shortly they'll
also be able to get out of their suits and get comfortable
for the entire ride on Dragon to the International Space Station. So
and from left to right on
your screen, there's Roscosmos cosmonaut Real Peskov,
NASA astronaut Nicole Ayres, NASA astronaut Ian McClain.
And then far on the right hand side of your screen is Jaxa astronaut.
Takuya Onishi.
And there you can see
that they are in microgravity as, their tablets are floating around there.
They do have them attached to a little string
that helps allow them so that, you know, as
they're strapped into their seats, that they don't lose their tablets.
We're now just over 20 minutes.
And so today's flight, following that successful liftoff at 7:03 p.m.
eastern, 4:03 p.m. Pacific.
There, you're getting an over the shoulder view, between the commander and pilot.
So. And the claim and the cool air's.
Flight.
Yeah.
All right.
If you're just now joining us, you are watching
Live Crew ten out in space in the Dragon vehicle.
They lifted off from Space
Launch Complex 39 at 7:03 p.m.
eastern time.
Dragon. SpaceX.
There are about three minutes remaining in the current ground station pass.
At this time, you're welcome to introduce your Zero-G indicator.
We're using the full crew cam so we can see all four crewmembers right now.
All right, Kathy, thank you.
SpaceX, that, we'd like to introduce the curtain, the indicator
setting is holding them up.
This is a hand crochet origami crane,
Japanese origami hand crocheted in the United States.
And his name is Driggs, which is the Russian name for friend.
Origami is the Japanese art of folding paper.
This is a nod to the unique
and deep cultural traditions from which each of us come.
We're from different parts of the world.
We are brought together in this old endeavor, and we represent all of humanity.
The fold.
The paper design was also chosen to represent paper airplanes that we made
here.
Kids before we were astronauts, when all we had was a dream,
and we looked up at the sky and we wondered, what if?
It's a symbol that every big accomplishment starts with a quiet dream,
and that dreams do come true.
When you believe in yourself and you listen only to those who believe
in you, who can believe in all of the dreamers.
The flag and the number markings on the crane.
There's a number ten on each of its wings, and a flag
from each one of our countries on the tail.
This is a nod to each of our shared experiences.
A professional pilot.
These statues are arranged to look like an airplane.
This is a source of deep pride for our crew,
because what pilot doesn't like to talk about the fact that there are pilots?
But this also symbolizes our shared culture as astronauts.
In the years of training together, we found we have far more in common
than we do different.
Our Zero-G indicator was handmade by a small business owner in the United States.
This represents all the hands he's created our entire space program
and this rocket and this capsule that we're flying today.
It also represents all of the artists and musicians
who inspire people to imagine beyond what they can see.
Spaceflight is perhaps the most complex endeavor of our time,
but it was built one step at a time by one person at a time.
Finally, the origami crane is
the international symbol for peace, hope, and healing.
Quicken hopes to serve as a beacon of hope,
a reminder of what humans can accomplish when we see the goodness in one another
and we choose to work together toward a common goal
today, we are united not for common enemy,
but for shared optimism and a basic belief in the goodness of humanity.
It is far easier to be enemies than it is to be friends,
easier to break partnerships in relationships than it is to build them.
Space flight is hard, and success depends on leaders of character
who choose the harder right over the easier wrong
and who build programs, partnerships, and relationships
we explore for the benefit of all.
If you want to go fast, go alone.
But if you want to go far and go together, the chooses
to go together in peace
because you cannot be great without the greatness of others.
Don't ask for the cosmos.
Go Jaxa and big hurricanes.
Dragon SpaceX.
We really appreciate those words and thanks for introducing.
Air from NASA astronaut
and the crew ten commander and McClain.
And again crew ten comprised of McClain along with NASA astronaut
Nicole Ayers and Jaxa astronaut Takuya Onishi,
along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, are now safely in orbit
following an approximately nine minute ride after a liftoff at 4:03 p.m.
Pacific, 7:03 p.m.
eastern from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The crew now has an approximately 28 hour journey ahead of them
before they reach their destination, the International Space Station.
Again, docking is targeted for tomorrow, March 15th at 8:30 p.m.
Pacific 11:30 p.m.
eastern, to the forward facing port of the station's Harmony module.
Between now and then, Dragon will perform a series of burns
to catch up with the space station,
and that first burn will be taking place around 4:52 p.m.
Pacific, 7:52 p.m. eastern. Today.
And those are some great words about the Zero-G indicator.
Very incredible.
Human spaceflight has come so far in the last five years with Dragon.
In addition to flying people, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft
also enables researchers the opportunity to fly critical science to orbit.
Now, so far as SpaceX
and Dragon have carried over a thousand research experiments
to and from low-Earth orbit, both to the International Space Station
and on our free fly our missions, from DNA sequencing to 3D printing studies
enabled by Dragon and the Space Station test a variety of technology,
systems and materials
that will be needed for future long duration exploration missions.
Every mission needs critical research and learnings
that help make life both on Earth and in space better.
And flights like today's help us continue to lay the foundation for our future
among the stars and continue our mission to make life multi-planetary.
Thank you.
Now we'll be
signing off from space for now, so we're going to send it back to NASA.
But before we go, we want to thank NASA for entrusting us with today's mission.
And thank you all for being here with us today.
And with that, we're going to end our coverage from Hawthorne until we pick
back up with our docking coverage in about 26 hours at 6:45 p.m.
Pacific, 9:45 p.m.
eastern tomorrow, March 15th, for that targeted docking
to the International Space Station at 8:30 p.m.
Pacific, 11:30 p.m. eastern.
So for now, thank you for joining us.
And back over to you, Jessica and Daryl at the Kennedy Space
Center to wrap up today's coverage.
And welcome back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida,
where we just watched crew ten.
Liftoff from Launch Pad 39 A, the crew is now in route
to the International Space Station. I'm Darrell Nail.
This is NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, who just watched one of her close friends
and many friends crew ten go up into space,
and I'm wondering what that moment was like for you.
Well, I'll tell you, it is a moment that you never forget.
I am so excited right now, sitting here thinking especially of Nicole and Caryl,
because that first time experiencing prolonged weightlessness is something
that they will never forget, and they will be talking about it
for years and years for the rest of their lives.
Just like I recounted my stories here tonight,
those words were all so inspirational as well.
I love how they unveiled their drug, their origami crane.
It really hit on so many important themes tonight.
You know, talking about this Japanese art of folding paper,
really combining all of the cultures of their crew, the name being a Russian
name meaning friend, the origami crane for Japanese culture.
All of the flags on the crane made handmade by a small business in the US.
It really highlights so many important elements that I know are so important
to the crew and to all of us at NASA and all of the space agencies.
Ideally, you know, really in in summary,
highlighting the representation of peace, of hope and of healing
and that we are all truly stronger when we work together.
So thank you and thank you, crew ten for those incredible words.
I think that there's a lesson there for all of us.
Tonight we are exploring, exploring for the benefit of all
and crew ten believes in all dreamers.
Thank you for highlighting the words of commander and McClain as well.
Crew ten will become part of expedition 73 briefly with 72,
but then 73 when they arrive on the space station.
NASA's Megan Cruz joins us now with Megan Everett,
deputy chief scientist of the International Space Station.
That's right. Two Megan's here.
And I want to talk to you about, you know,
we obviously have another crew en route to the space station.
How is the research that's done on the.
It's different from other research at NASA.
Yes. Well, first, thank you for having me.
It's always my pleasure and very grateful to get to talk about science in space.
And so like you said, the space station is a national laboratory and it allows us
to look at things in microgravity for extended periods of time.
We can put things on the outside of the space station where they experience
extreme temperature changes and exposure to radiation and that extreme environment.
And we also get these very unique perspectives of the Earth's surface.
And so together, these things allow us to look at things like theories
and quantum physics
and answer questions that we can't answer with laboratories on Earth.
We can look at human health and how that we can get astronauts
to explore beyond low-Earth orbit, as well as promote human health
and answer questions related to diseases that we can't do on Earth.
And it also allows us to expand commercialization
in low-Earth orbit by some of our in-space manufacturing.
And in addition to this, it's just this really cool collaboration
of international partners
and, scientific cooperation that we see on the space station.
Yeah, obviously a unique platform.
And we do, all that we can, to really utilize that.
So how does what we learn on the space station help us here on Earth?
Can you give us some examples about that? Yes.
I love that question because one of NASA's
big mission objectives is to figure out how we can do
science in space to promote human health here on Earth.
And one of the things we've been really successful with on ISS,
looking at stem cell research and organelles
and how those relate to specific diseases like cancer.
And we also look at protein crystallization.
And so we can grow very uniform crystals in space, better than we can on Earth.
And these crystals are really important in pharmaceutical drug development.
So together we can look at disease progression and how we can better
treat those diseases with new pharmaceuticals in space.
That's great.
You did also mention human health and researching.
You know what it could mean if we go farther and farther into the universe?
How are we doing on that research? What are we learning?
So we've used ISS as a testbed for exploration
beyond low-Earth orbit for a long time, and we continue to use that.
And we will all the way through end of station.
And some of the specific things that we look at are
how the human responds to long duration exposure to gravity.
So we look at exercise countermeasures, how we can maintain muscle
and bone strength.
We look at things like food systems
for how we keep crew healthy for long periods of time.
We have a very robust plant growth program.
So we try to optimize crop output by,
changing things like soil and water exposure to those plants.
And we need life support systems for our crew to live in space
for long periods of time.
So we have a lot of technical demonstrations on the space station
looking at how to clean air and water and eliminate waste.
I can really see that you love talking about this.
Thank you so much for sharing your passion and for sharing
all that's being accomplished South
through NASA with the research at the ISS, but also other research that we do here.
Well, thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much.
All right. Back to Darryl and Jessica.
All right.
Thank you very much. And we're about to wrap up coverage here.
So why don't we take one last social question from one lucky submit submitter.
Scarlett sermons asks how do the astronauts feel
looking at Earth from above?
And what's that feeling like coming back?
Well, seeing the Earth from above is a very, very exceptional experience.
And it's something that I think changes you forever.
People have different things to say about this, but I think one message
that we do all share is that it gives you this unique understanding for
how beautiful our planet is, but mostly how unique and fragile it is.
You see this beautiful gem below you and this tiny, tiny band,
thin, tenuous band of an atmosphere that's really supporting all life.
And you realize that we need to take care
of this planet, that it is one planet, and we have to protect it.
Secondly, one thing that I really was struck
by was seeing how interconnected everything is.
You know, you see all of the land masses with no boundaries.
You see all the continuous oceans, and you realize how connect
everything is, how we really are just one human.
We are all here together, in it, together as one.
It's easy as humans to have these manmade, imposed boundaries that we see
delineated on the globe.
But for us as astronauts, we realize that we are truly all in this together.
Well said, Jessica, and let's go ahead and ended on that right here on NASA.
Plus, you can follow us along with Crew Ten's entire journey
to the station by listening to real time audio commentary of the mission.
Just scan the QR code that you see right there at the bottom of your screen.
Or if you're watching us on your phone, you can just do a screen grab
and then click on it later.
Crew ten is on course to arrive at the International Space Station
around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday.
March.
I believe that's going to be March 6th for 15th, rather March 15th.
On camera coverage of docking and arrival
will resume about two hours before it docks on NASA.
Plus.
And of course, that's always a big moment when the crowd,
you know, comes together on I.s.s..
Yeah, absolutely.
You have to have a lot of patience because you get to i.s.s.
you dock,
and then you have to go through these pressure checks
to make sure everything's okay, and you're just waiting to get to the other side.
And it's an incredibly special moment when you come through the hatch,
you float for the first time for two of them,
and you get big hugs
from all of your friends and colleagues that are up there already.
And I was impressed by what and says, you know, once they do this together,
they are.
And you've mentioned this a couple times like forever, brothers and sisters,
when she sees those fellow astronauts in the hallway back in Houston,
you know, there's always a big smile that comes across her face.
Yeah, it's a bond that you have forever spending that time in space
together, having that shared experience.
You know, it's something as astronauts,
we want to share with our friends and family how it feels, what it's like.
And it's hard when you they haven't experienced it.
But with other astronauts and other cosmonauts, you have this instant
special bond because you all have that shared experience together.
And when they return, they will come full circle
with the rest of the astronauts, appropriately so on Pi Day.
I just had to get out of there one more time.
314 there you go.
Well, I want to thank you, Jessica, for joining us.
You were here for crew seven.
You did crew ten two launch attempts.
It's a lot of work.
We thank you for it. It's been very special.
We hope that when you go on your mission and we are watching you and documenting
your trip, that you throw us a little love somehow towards
the camera, give us a wave, something we will be rooting you on.
Absolutely. Daryl, it's been such a pleasure to be here.
Sharing in the excitement for crew ten today.
Go crew ten, go crew ten go NASA, go SpaceX.
And an important reminder about upcoming launches NASA and SpaceX
will return to the ISS in late April with CRS 32,
a resupply mission launching from Kennedy and then crew 11 several months from now.
Again, a huge thanks to all of us.
For all of us.
From all of us to you and to our guests for joining us today.
But most importantly, thank you for watching.
You can keep up with any crew.
Ten updates to this mission
using the online resources you see on your screen.
Just there below for everyone here at NASA
and SpaceX and for Jessica Meir, I'm Daryl Neil.
Have a great rest of the day.
We leave you now with a look back at highlights from suit up to liftoff.
Crew ten is getting suited up, ready to go.
Time now for the traditional card game.
Crew ten walking down the hallway.
And here they come.
Taking their first steps outside as they prepare for their journey
to the International Space Station.
And we are off the crew on their way
to Space launch pad 39, a
and McClain Nicole Ayres making their way
into their Dragon spacecraft endurance.
And here come our mission specialist.
Down the crew, successor to Onishi and crew, Pascal.
There they are, rotating back.
Dragon SpaceX has just closed
ignition.
And look
at the crew.
They.
Copy.
What else?
I mean, I'm serious that you don't have any space station.
1.7 million pounds of thrust now propelling Falcon nine and ten.
We're continuing to get good call out on the first stage performance so far.