Q&A with Mimi Aung, Mars Helicopter project manager at JPL (members only)

NASA ground crews at the Kennedy Space Center are continuing to stack segments of the Space Launch System’s side-mounted solid rocket boosters on a mobile launch platform inside the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building.

In a mission marking the end of an era, NASA astronaut and former virus hunter Kate Rubins, using NASA’s last currently contracted seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, blasts off Wednesday with two cosmonaut crewmates on a flight to the International Space Station.

The Cargo Dragon spacecraft, tail number C209, will carry 6,659 lbs. (3,021 kg.) of science and supplies to the orbiting outpost. Liftoff from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center happened Monday, April 21, at 4:15 a.m. EDT (0815 UTC).