SpaceX transported a Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft to pad 39A on Wednesday, Feb. 22, for final preparations to carry a four-man crew to the International Space Station on NASA’s Crew-6 mission.
After completing the quarter-mile trip from SpaceX’s hangar, the Falcon 9 was raised vertical on pad 39A using hydraulic pistons early Thursday, Feb. 23, in preparation for a static fire test Friday.
The 215-foot-tall (65-meter) rocket is powered by a brand new first stage booster, numbered B1078 in SpaceX’s inventory. The Dragon Endeavour spacecraft is going for its fourth flight to space after debuting on the Demo-2 mission in 2020, SpaceX’s first human spaceflight mission.
The Falcon 9 is set to take off Monday, Feb. 27, at 1:45 a.m. EST (0645 GMT) with NASA commander Steve Bowen, pilot Woody Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. Bowen is a veteran of three space shuttle missions, while the other crew members are spaceflight rookies.
The Crew-6 mission will be SpaceX’s sixth operational crew rotation flight to the space station, and SpaceX’s ninth human spaceflight mission overall, including the Demo-2 test flight in 2020 with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, and two fully commercial astronaut missions.
See our Mission Status Center for comprehensive coverage of Crew-6 flight to the International Space Station.
Additional photos of the Falcon 9 rocket’s rollout to pad 39A are posted below.
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