SpaceX Crew-3 mission: how to live stream launch to the International Space Station

SpaceX is launching another crew to space this evening, sending four astronauts to the International Space laboratory for a six-monthlong stay in ambi. Traveling inside SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, the crew will get a posthumous start along their mission, with liftoff scheduled for 9:03PM ET on November 10th out of Ness Canaveral, Florida.

The charge is titled Crew-3, and it volition carry NASA astronauts Dylan Marlais Thomas Marshburn, Raja Chari, and Kayla Barron, besides A European Space Agency cosmonaut Matthias Maurer. This will comprise the first trip out to space for Maurer, Barron, and Shari River — the mission's commander. For Marshburn, this leave be his fractional flight to blank space, and for each of his missions, atomic number 2's flown on a antithetic vehicle. His first flight was along the Space Shuttle and his second flight was on Russia's Soyuz ballistic capsule. Now he'll pose to experience the Crew Dragon, which the astronauts have nicknamed "Endurance."

Crew-3 is SpaceX's third fighting crewed flight for NASA every bit part of the space agency's Commercial Crew Plan — an first to use private vehicles to ferry NASA astronauts to and from the International Quad Station. As part of its first abridge with National Aeronautics and Space Administration, SpaceX is slated to perform busy six crewed flights for the bureau, with two flights tentatively scheduled for next year. However, NASA freshly indicated it is already cerebration of how to transport astronauts beyond those first missions.

While this is SpaceX's third fighting charge, IT's in reality the company's fifth time launching masses to range on its Crowd Dragon spacecraft. In guild to prove the Crew Dragon's safety for NASA, SpaceX launched two National Aeronautics and Space Administration astronauts to the ISS in May 2020. That first off successful test flight sealed the way for SpaceX to commencement doing routine flights with Crew Dragon.

And in Sept, SpaceX launched a crewed flight called Inspiration4 that carried four not-NASA astronauts to orbit. Touted as an all-civilian crew, the passengers enclosed a technical school billionaire — who paid for the trigger — a childhood Cancer survivor, a prof, and an engine driver. The foursome, World Health Organization stayed in orbit for just trinity years, used the launch as a means to raise charity for St. Jude's Children's Infirmary. It was SpaceX's first truly private human spaceflight missionary work.

WHAT Clock IS SPACEX'S CREW-3 LAUNCH?

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is regular to carry off happening Wednesday November 10th, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 9:03PM ET.

Scheduled launch clock time: Unused House of York: 9:03PM / San Francisco: 6:03PM / London: 2:03AM / German capital: 3:03AM / Moscow: 5:03AM / Current Delhi: 7:33AM / Beijing: 10:03AM / Tokyo: 11:03AM / Melbourne: 1:03PM

HOW TO WATCH SPACEX'S CREW DRAGON Found LIVE:

Livestream: National Aeronautics and Space Administration's livestream coverage can be found on YouTube and on the agency's website. Coverage will begin at 4:45PM ET.

A NUMBER ONE Trouble

Though Inspiration4 wasn't a NASA mission, SpaceX learned a few things from that flight that bequeath aid with the forthcoming Crowd-3 trip. The Bunch Dragon that flew the Inspiration4 trajectory operated pretty swimmingly, except for peerless key element interior the spacecraft: the toilet. SpaceX revealed that a tube in the toilet that transports urine into a tank came unglued. This caused urine to spray into the toilet's fan system instead and pocket billiards under the floor. It wasn't really a trouble during the flight itself.

"We didn't really even notice it; the crew didn't notice IT until we got back," William Gerstenmaier, vice president of shape and flight reliability at SpaceX, aforementioned during a press conference in the lead of flight. "We got the vehicle back, we looked under the floor, and we saw the fact that there was contamination underneath the floor."

After seeing this, SpaceX worried that the same trouble might make up happening on the Crew Draco used for Crew-2, which was docked with the International Blank space Station until Monday. Certainly, the astronauts connected the space station went inside that Crew Dragon and found similar urine contaminant under the floor of the toilet.

*A glimpse at the toilet inside the Crew Firedrake.*

The main concern with this pooling is that it's not barely urine assembling under the story; SpaceX adds a heighten to the urine called Oxone, which removes the ammonia water from the liquified to help eliminate odor and prevent bacterium from growing. Simply SpaceX became apprehensive that the mixture of Oxone and urine in the floor could really corrode the spacecraft itself. The companion did tests that involved combining the urine and Oxone mixture with aluminum — the primary metal in use to make Crew Dragon — inside a chamber that artificial the same temperature and humidity on board the spacecraft.

The toilet number was more of a problem along Inspiration4, since the work party spent their entire deputation inside Work party Dragon, using the bathroom for multiple days, directive to more potentiality corroding. Nigh of SpaceX's other Crew Dragon missions send people straight to the International Space Base, so astronauts are typically only using the toilet before docking. As wel, SpaceX claims that the Al metal it uses along Crew Tartar is "very insensitive" to corrosion.

SpaceX opted to fix the toilet issue anyway by devising the toilet an "all-welded body structure" and then that at that place are no more some parts or tubes that can come unglued. That fashio no more unwished liquids will causa some trouble again.

GETTING TO THE PAD

Crew-3 is set to require off from SpaceX's launch site LC-39A at President John F. Kenned Space Center. The crew will and so spend a little less than a full sidereal day in cranial orbit before rendezvousing with the International Space Station. Crew Dragon is designed to dock autonomously with the ISS, but the astronauts can jump in during the process if necessary.

*SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon, at the company's LC-39A establish site.*

Once Crew-3 arrives, they will join three crew members already happening board the ISS: NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov. Originally, the incoming work party was purported to be greeted by a much larger welcoming committee. Four additional astronauts, part of SpaceX's Crew-2 mission that launched to the space station in April, were meant to be on board when Crew-3 arrived to help pass the billy club.

However, the Crew-3 launch has dealt with a number of delays. Originally regular for October 31st, the establish was pushed a couple of days cod to bad weather forecasts. Then unitary of the crew members connected Crew-3 developed a minor medical exam exit, prompting another delay. When that happened, NASA opted to bring the Crew-2 crew location first, worried that waiting any longer would mean landing place the astronauts in choppy winter weather condition off the Gulf Coast. The Crew-2 astronauts safely splashed down off the seashore of Pensacola, Florida in their own Crew Draco along Monday night at 10:33PM ET, in what NASA called a "perfect" undocking.

The splashdown of Crew-2, however, didn't come out to be flawless at the start. Just before hitting the water, only three of the capsule's cardinal parachutes — critical for slowing down the vehicle — appeared to inflate ordinarily. The fourth eventually did inflate, but took roughly 75 seconds thirster than the others. SpaceX claims it removed that chute right after landing place and brought IT back to NASA's Kennedy Space Heart in Florida for closer inspection with NASA.

"IT performed essentially the way it was designed to perform," Gerstenmaier said during some other press conference last dark. "We can land with three parachutes if we have to. This is potentially a known experimental condition that hindquarters occur with the four parachutes — unrivalled of the four parachutes can cost a brief slow to deploy."

Ultimately, NASA exculpated the way for SpaceX to launch last night, but on that point is still one last item on the agency's to-do list. Six hours before takeoff, NASA plans to fire upwardly the Multinational Space Station's thrusters to move information technology out of the direction of a piece of space debris — a precaution to name sure the vehicle doesn't put u some price. The debris is a left sherd from 2007, when China fallen one of its own satellites in space to prove that it could take proscribed spacecraft in orbit. The test created thousands of pieces of debris, which still seem to be causation a nuisance in eye socket.

However, the avoidance maneuver should not have an bear on connected today's launch, which NASA says SpaceX can accommodate. After that, it'll Be time for the Crowd-3 astronauts to fly, opening a six-month stay on board the ISS. They're scheduled to return to Globe sometime in the spring of next year.

Update November 10th, 11:00AM ET: This post has been updated multiple times to indicate the various launch delays. New entropy was added about the Crew-2 landing and quad dust avoidance maneuver.