Crew-7 to dock with ISS Sunday. Watch here

Crew-7 successfully launched to the International Space Station on Saturday morning, August 26, 2023, with a crew of four aboard. Coverage of the Crew-7 mission docking at ISS will begin at 6:45 a.m. EDT (10:45 UTC) Sunday, August 27. Watch it here.

Crew-7 to dock with ISS Sunday

Following a successful liftoff in the early hours of Saturday, August 26, 2023, the Crew-7 mission is now speeding to the International Space Station. The trip will last nearly 30 hours. And the crew capsule is expected to dock with ISS at 8:39 a.m. EDT (12:39 UTC) Sunday, August 27, 2023.

Coverage of the docking will be streamed as it happens on NASA Live. Or watch in the video player above. Here is Sunday’s broadcast schedule:

6:45 a.m. EDT (10:45 UTC) – Coverage of the rendezvous and docking of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 with the International Space Station followed by hatch opening and welcoming remarks by the crew.

8:39 a.m. EDT (12:39 UTC) – Docking scheduled.

10:33 a.m. EDT (14:33 UTC) – Hatch opening scheduled.

11:30 a.m. EDT (15:30 UTC) – Welcoming remarks scheduled.

The four members of the Crew-7 team will relieve the four astronauts of NASA’s Crew-6 mission. Crew-6 is expected to return shortly after Crew-7 arrives. ISS crews typically stay six months (though some crew members stay longer).

Crew-7 is beginning a six-month ISS expedition.

Crew-7 launched to ISS predawn Saturday

A brand-new Falcon 9 booster carried the Dragon crew capsule Endurance into orbit early Saturday morning, August 26, 2023. And riding it were space travelers from four different nations. So, excitingly, that makes the Crew-7 launch the first Dragon flight ever crewed by four different space agencies.

The Crew-7 mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Coverage of the launch on the SpaceX YouTube feed – embedded below on this page – is available to rewatch.

SpaceX standing in for Boeing

Overall, the mission is the 8th time a SpaceX vehicle will deliver crew to the International Space Station. It was, however, supposed to be the 1st crewed trip of the Boeing Starliner.

The problem-plagued Starliner program has suffered yet another delay in getting to the launchpad. This time, Boeing discovered flammable adhesive tape – and a whole lot of it – used in Starliner’s construction. The vehicle’s parachute recovery system also has multiple defects that could cause it to fail.

Regardless, when covering the most recent Starliner fiasco, NPR reported Boeing won’t give up on its spaceship:

[Boeing] says they’ll take the next several weeks to investigate the design issues and come up with potential solutions. For now, Boeing says it’s fully committed to the program and has no plans to stop developing Starliner despite being years behind schedule.

Boeing has not announced a rescheduled date for Starliner’s next attempt to get a crew into orbit.

Meanwhile, the Falcon 9 booster that flew Saturday – B1081 – went up for its 1st time. After delivering the spacefarers to orbit, the 230-foot (70-meter) spaceship returned for a soft landing back at Kennedy.

Bottom line: The Crew-7 launch to ISS was delayed to Saturday morning. It then launched successfully into dark Florida skies with four on board.