BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – NASA and SpaceX’s Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to take off Friday morning from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying four astronauts is set to launch at 5:15 a.m. from Space Launch Complex 40.
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, the Crew-12 commander, and Jack Hathaway, the pilot, will join mission specialists Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency and Andrey Fedyaev of Roscosmos for eight months of research, technology demos and maintenance with the already-present crew of Expedition 74, according to NASA.
[MORE: Meet the astronauts of Crew-12]
“This research includes studies of pneumonia-causing bacteria to improve treatments, on-demand intravenous fluid generation for future space missions, automated plant health monitoring, investigations of plant and nitrogen-fixing microbe interactions to enhance food production in space, and research on how physical characteristics may affect blood flow during spaceflight," NASA’s blog post states.
[VIDEO BELOW: Vulcan rocket blasts off from Florida]
The launch had originally been scheduled for earlier in the week but was pushed due in part to weather concerns.
Weather conditions are forecast to be 85% favorable at the new launch time. If the launch goes as currently planned, Crew-12 would arrive at the space station around 3:15 p.m. Saturday, according to NASA.
NASA coverage of the launch begins at 3:15 a.m. Friday, according to the space agency’s latest blog post on the matter.
News 6 will stream the launch live at the top of this story.