A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Crew-7 mission from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The four astronauts aboard the Crew Dragon are NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, the second Iranian-American in space; European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa; and Konstantin Borisov of Russia's space agency, Roscosmos.
Credit: SpaceX
The four astronauts aboard the Crew Dragon are NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, the second Iranian-American in space; European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa; and Konstantin Borisov of Russia's space agency, Roscosmos.
Credit: SpaceX
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TechTranscript
00:00 T minus 15. K minus 10. 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Engine's full power. And liftoff.
00:19 Go Falcon. Go Dragon. Go Crew 7.
00:24 Endurance Ascends an international crew destined for the International Space Station.
00:31 Stage 1 propulsion is nominal.
00:34 Good calls from the propulsion officers here. Propulsion's nominal.
00:39 1.7 million pounds of thrust on Falcon 9 taking Crew 7 to the International Space Station.
00:48 Now traveling almost 300 miles per hour.
00:51 Nominal power and telemetry.
01:00 We are just about 2 plus 45 seconds into the seventh rotational crew mission onboard Dragon and Falcon 9.
01:10 And right now the vehicle is throttling down to help us pass through the period of maximum dynamic pressure.
01:16 Falcon 9.
01:23 There's the call out that Crew 7 is now moving faster than the speed of sound.
01:29 Max Q. Stage 1 throttle up.
01:34 Confirmation we have moved through Max Q and are throttling back up.
01:38 Copy. One Bravo.
01:41 Heard that call from Jasmine on Crew 7 as well as confirmation from the ground.
01:46 The call out for one Bravo means we are in the second and final abort mode for the first stage.
01:50 MVAC chill is underway.
01:52 Continuing to get good performance.
01:54 We've got engine chill on the second stage MVAC engine.
01:58 We will then be looking for MECO or main engine cutoff where the nine engines on the first stage will cut off ahead of the first and second stages separating.
02:06 Then the single Merlin vacuum engine on the second stage will ignite.
02:11 We are now coming up on two minutes into the flight.
02:15 Spacecraft traveling over 2,000 miles per hour.
02:20 Really incredible nighttime views of Falcon 9 and Crew 7 on your screen right now.
02:27 So as Leah just mentioned, we are keeping an eye on a couple of critical flight milestones coming up back to back here.
02:33 Those are going to be MECO, so main engine cutoff now that we are throttling down stage one, followed by stage separation and second stage ignition.
02:46 Main engine cutoff.
02:50 Stage separation confirmed.
02:53 Copy. Two alpha.
02:57 MVAC ignition.
03:04 So there you heard and saw MECO stage set and hopefully you heard Jasmine call out for the two alpha abort mode just before second stage ignition.
03:15 And of course, this is the second stage powering Dragon on its flight now traveling almost 4,000 miles per hour.
03:23 Over three minutes since launch, the second stage will continue to power the spacecraft and our first look at the crew inside.
03:37 We'll be standing by for SECO. That's the next major milestone for this second stage engine that comes shortly before nine minutes into the flight.
03:44 So we've still got some time on this engine.
03:51 So right now, while Crew 7 makes its way to orbit, our first stage booster is making its way back to land.
03:57 So you may hear the call outs here on the net shortly that we are in the middle of our boost back burn.
04:07 Right now, stage one is coasting.
04:09 Trajectory nominal.
04:12 Good call outs there that Dragon is on the right track.
04:18 And confirmation from Commander Jasmine McBellie.
04:24 Continuing to see good performance on this lone Marlin vacuum engine on the stage.
04:30 Also, as we've heard, nominal trajectory.
04:33 That's the guidance, navigation and control officer here at SpaceX stating that we are on the correct path.
04:39 Dragon's pointed in the right direction.
04:41 Second stage continues firing until, like we mentioned, second stage engine cut off at about eight minutes and fifty five zero seconds into the flight.
04:48 Right now we are four minutes and 30 seconds since our on time lift off now traveling at 5000 miles per hour.
04:56 This single Merlin vacuum engine can provide over two hundred and twenty thousand pounds of thrust in the vacuum of space, doing its job to take our crew to the International Space Station today.
05:07 Dragon SpaceX check nominal.
05:13 More good news for mission control.
05:19 I'm going to send a signal for me to.
05:24 So with that Bermuda call out, we actually know that the ground station transmitting this flight data back to us is coming from Bermuda.
05:38 The crew is currently pulling a little more than one G as the second stage engine continues to propel their flight.
05:46 Continuing to hear good calls to the crew now five minutes and 30 seconds into the flight traveling at six thousand four hundred miles per hour.
05:58 Again, we will continue to see the second stage fire for about three more minutes.
06:04 Shortly after second stage engine cut off, we will see it separate from Dragon, which will continue its journey.
06:19 Now, at this point in the flight, we are just about 15 seconds away from stage one entry burn start.
06:26 At this point, the center engine on Falcon nine will be lit for just about 10 seconds to help us slow the vehicle down as it reenters the Earth's atmosphere.
06:35 That's not the only thing helping us on reentry, though.
06:38 The first stage sees high drag on reentry, which scrubs roughly 70 percent of the velocity by the time the landing burn begins.
06:45 But you just had great views of on the left hand side of your screen.
06:49 Florida Space Coast beginning to come into view in the background.
06:55 All while crew seven, of course, on the right hand side of your screen, lit up by that MVAC engine continues on its way to orbit.
07:07 We are now coming up on
07:14 the second stage engine.
07:38 Any second now.
07:43 Great views.
07:51 Stage two.
08:08 Great news there that stage one has successfully landed back at landing zone one in Florida.
08:16 And stage two continues to propel Dragon and our crew seven crew members.
08:22 We now are coming up on Seiko second stage engine cut off again, looking at that about eight minutes and 50 seconds into the flight.
08:30 Everything continues as planned today. Now traveling over 13000 miles per hour.
08:35 Again, we're looking for eventually a good orbital insertion at which we'll be traveling.
08:44 Good calls here at Mission Control in Hawthorne.
08:53 And we are standing by for a second stage engine cut off.
08:57 Copy, Shannon.
09:00 Heard that call for Shannon. That is the call for Shannon Ireland, the final abort zone.
09:12 MVAC shutdown.
09:17 There's audio confirmation and you can see on your screen that we have had successful state second engine cut off one of our MVAC engine.
09:25 Dragon SpaceX nominal orbit insertion.
09:31 And good news there that crew seven.
09:33 Nominal orbital insertion.
09:36 Dragon SpaceX. Awesome to hear.
09:52 That's the first look at the crew now in microgravity confirmation of a good earth orbit insertion.
10:00 We are now coming up on 10 minutes into the flight. Of course, we saw a second stage engine cut off and you're actually getting a look at their zero G indicator there.
10:08 We'll stand by for them to tell us a little bit more about that shortly. But we are also standing by for a second stage separation from Dragon.
10:19 So as Leah mentioned right now, Dragon and Stage two are still attached.
10:25 Great views of that zero G indicator there.
10:29 And what we're doing right now is basically letting any residual dynamics of the vehicle settle out prior to separation.
10:41 We are expecting that separation event in probably about 90 seconds.
10:46 Crew looks like they're having a great time up in space, too.
10:53 And as we stand by for that separation shortly thereafter, we'll be looking for the nose cone to begin deploying.
11:00 That command will be sent and we'll see it open shortly after.
11:05 We'll need the nose cone to open to expose those forward bulkhead thrusters, as well as the docking mechanism with which they will use to link up with the International Space Station.
11:17 And we'll be looking for that nose cone to open shortly after their ride. It's almost 30 hours long.
11:31 Again, we had lift off right on time today at 327 a.m. Eastern time.
11:37 And we are standing by for a second stage separation from Dragon.
12:01 Great views of mission control here in Hawthorne, California.
12:07 And the SpaceX team standing in the background.
12:10 Standing by for Dragon separation.
12:20 You also have continued telemetry readouts from Dragon and Stage 2 in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen.
12:41 Crew 7, on behalf of the Falcon team, I'd like to welcome you to orbit and we hope you enjoyed the ride on Falcon 9.
12:46 Space travel is difficult, even though you make it look easy. So thank you for trusting us to get you up there.
12:51 It's not a bad way to spend a day in the office. Stand by for words from the launch director.
12:56 Hello, Crew 7. This is launch director here on countdown.
13:00 On behalf of the entire SpaceX launch and recovery team, I'm honored to welcome Dragon's first ever all-international crew to orbit.
13:08 Godspeed, Crew 7. Cheers.