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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Science
Helen Sullivan

Four astronauts on way to International Space Station – as it happened

Full report: Astronauts head to International Space Station onboard Dragon capsule

SpaceX has launched four astronauts to the International Space Station on the first full-fledged taxi flight for Nasa by a private company.

The Falcon rocket thundered into the night from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with three Americans and one Japanese onboard, the second crew to be launched by SpaceX. The Dragon capsule on top – named Resilience by its crew in light of this year’s many challenges, most notably Covid-19 – is due to reach the space station after 27-and-a-half hours and remain there until spring.

SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk was forced to monitor the action from afar after being sidelined by the virus. He tweeted that he “most likely” had a moderate case of Covid-19. Nasa policy at Kennedy Space Center requires anyone testing positive for coronavirus to quarantine and remain isolated.

Sunday’s launch comes just a few months after a two-pilot test flight by SpaceX and kicks off what Nasa hopes will be a long series of crew rotations between the US and the space station, after years of delay. More people means more science research at the orbiting lab, officials said.

“This is another historic moment,” Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine said on Friday. But he noted: “Make no mistake: Vigilance is always required on every flight.”

The flight to the space station should be entirely automated, although the crew can take control if needed.

Four hours after liftoff, Nasa announced that it was investigating “an issue with propellant heaters and continuing to gather data”. Half an hour later, Nasa tweeted: “Teams are troubleshooting propellant heaters that heat the fuel aboard Crew Dragon. Temperatures remain stable and the crew remains safe.”

The role of the propellant heaters is to keep the fuel above 60F, according to CBS space journalist William Harwood. At the time of the last update, the temperature was 75F:

By around five hours after liftoff, the issue had been resolved, as had a problem with the Thermal Control System, which was running slightly too cold:

Propellant heaters recovered and thermal control system back to nominal

Ah, before I go, we’ve just received two good updates on the two issues that the Dragon was experiencing.

The propellant heaters have been recovered and brought back to full fault tolerance – in other words, problem solved:

Ditto the thermal control systems. The mixing mode was running slightly too cold, but the TCS is now back to a “nominal configuration”, which as we have learned is space talk for running as it should.

Updated

Summary

Well, that was quite a journey. That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for now. You can keep watching the live feed from Dragon here.

Thanks to those of you who got in touch on Twitter. And thanks to Baby Yoda for indicating zero gravity for all of us.

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

  • SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station on the first full-fledged taxi flight for Nasa by a private company. The Falcon rocket thundered into the night from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with three Americans and one Japanese onboard, the second crew to be launched by SpaceX.
  • The Dragon capsule is due to reach the space station after 27-and-a-half hours and remain there for six months, until spring.
  • Four hours after liftoff, NASA announced that it was investigating an issue with the propellant heaters that keep the fuel for the Draco thrusters warm. Five hours after liftoff, this issue was still being investigated. For now, the temperature remains stable. NASA tweeted that the “crew remains safe” and CBS reported that a CORE controller had said the issue “is not time critical”.
  • An hour after the issue with the propeller heaters was noticed, the CORE team called the crew to let them know they they were investigating a thermal control system alert.
  • The crew have spoken to their doctors, changed into their comfortable clothes, eaten dinner and are preparing to go to sleep in the next couple of hours.
  • The zero-gravity indicator was revealed to be a Baby Yoda doll. It was seen bouncing around the cabin when the cameras were turned back on.
  • The next major milestone will be in 11 hours time, with the next phase burn.
  • Among the four pilots on board named their capsule Resilience. They are Victor Glover, who will be the first Black crew member to live on board the ISS; Soichi Noguchi, a Japanese astronaut, who is the first foreign astronaut allowed on a US spacecraft and physicist Shannon Walker, led by Commander Mike Hopkins, an Air Force colonel. They named their capsule “Resilience”.

NASA re-enables propellant heaters

NASA is still collecting data on the propellant heaters:

Propellant heaters issue 'not time critical'

William Harwood, who the CBS space reporter, has tweeted a bit more about the propellant heaters – which keep the fuel for the Draco thrusters warm.

It is all fairly technical, but there is a reassuring quote here from a CORE engineer, who says that fixing this issue is “not time critical” but that he wanted to let the crew know it was being looked at:

Here what else Harwood knows about the heaters:

The temperature inside the cabin is holding steady, despite the crew asking for it to be reduced, so this system is now being rebooted, we have just heard.

Meanwhile here was a bit of zero-gravity fun a few moments ago – Baby Yoda is there, if you look closely:

NASA: 'Temperatures remain stable and the crew remains safe'

NASA has just tweeted an update on the propellants, they say that, “Teams are troubleshooting propellant heaters that heat the fuel aboard Crew Dragon. Temperatures remain stable and the crew remains safe.”

Propellant heaters being rebooted

We’ve just been told that the propellant heaters are being rebooted and we’ll be hearing communications about this shortly.

But CBS’s space reporter, William Harwood, wrote earlier on Twitter that according to the CORE communications officer, three of the heaters are showing “high resistance” and are “marked alarmed” by the software.

He notes that at least two need to be operational, according to flight rules:

Fuel temperature stable in tanks

The propellants are being re-enabled to gather additional data, we have just heard.

The propellant heaters heat the fuel in the tanks on board Dragon. The fuel temperature remains stable for the time-being, according to NASA TV.

A crew member checking the temperature told the control centre as much. “Is that as expected?” he asked. “It is as expected,” said mission control.

Updated

We’ve learned more now about what the astronauts are wearing on their wrists – they’re mirrors.

Usually, astronauts use these to read controls on their suits that they cannot look down to see, these controls have captions that are written backwards so that they can be read with the mirrors.

Something similar might be the vase here, the NASA TV hosts have said, but they’re not sure.

We’re still waiting for more information on the Draco propellant heaters, NASA TV’s hosts have said, but we should know more shortly.

The Dragon crew has told the engineers that the temperature in the cabin is 23 degrees, andthat they would like to change it ahead of going to sleep.

The Dragon is currently 271 statute miles south of Australia, hence why it is daytime outside (I am blogging this from a very sunny Sydney afternoon).

NASA reports that there is “an issue” with the propellant heaters and that the engineers are looking into it. We’ll hopefully bring you more on this soon.

Zero-G indicator revealed: It's Baby Yoda!

We’ve just had the first views inside the Dragon capsule cabin since the launch earlier -and the zero-gravity indicator has been revealed. It is a Baby Yoda toy, which was seen floating around in the cabin briefly before the feed was cut:

Updated

Congratulations from Buzz Aldrin, one of the first astronauts to land on the moon:

Besides its sleek design and high-tech features, the Dragon capsule is quite spacious — it can carry up to seven people. Previous space capsules have launched with no more than three. The extra room in this newest capsule was used for science experiments and supplies, AP reports.

The four astronauts will be joining two Russians and one American who flew to the space station last month from Kazakhstan. The orbiting outpost soared over the launch site a mere half-minute before liftoff.

The first-stage booster is expected to be recycled by SpaceX for the next crew launch. That’s currently targeted for the end of March, which would set up the newly launched astronauts for a return to Earth in April.

More photos taken by the those still subject to the laws of gravity:

Updated

The Washington Post’s fact checker on that Trump tweet from earlier (note that he did not say NASA was not in fact the ‘hottest’, however”:

The astronauts will be allowed to eat the radishes they grow, we have just heard.

“What do astronauts do on the weekends”” asks oneNASA TV presenter. “They love to look out of the window,” says her co-host (with deadly seriousness).

Photography is also a big past time, as is watching big sports games.

NASA TV’s reporters confirm that there is a steady supply of coffee on the International Space Station.

Here is how the crew members said goodbye to their families earlier - the distance would be maintained regardless of whether there was a global pandemic, according to NASA TV:

Elon Musk, the billionaire SpaceX chief executive who is also CEO of electric carmaker and battery manufacturer Tesla Inc , will likely not have watched the liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center launch control room, NASA officials said. Musk said on Saturday he “most likely” has a moderate case of Covid-19, Reuters reports.

SpaceX and NASA have conducted contact-tracing and determined Musk had not come into contact with anyone who interacted with the astronauts.

“Our astronauts have been in quarantine for weeks, and they should not have had contact with anybody,” NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said on Friday. “They should be in good shape.”

NASA contracted SpaceX and Boeing in 2014 to develop competing space capsules aimed at replacing its shuttle program and weaning the United States from dependence on Russian rockets to send astronauts to space.

From that presser earlier:

(In other words, stay tuned for a picture of the space PJs)

We will hopefully be getting an update from inside the cabin in 20 minutes’ time.

For now, the crew are in their sleeping clothes, and probably saying “wow” a lot.

That press conference is now over.

Shotwell says there is one Dragon capsule being refurbished as well as two cargo capsules and three additional crew capsules in production right now.

A journalist is asking Lueders about how the astronauts manage to sleep.

They can cover their windows, and they change into PJs, she says – although she uses the term “more comfortable clothes”.

“They know they gotta get their rest so they can do the sequence of events for docking,” says Lueders.

A journalist is asking about the thermal control system now.

Commercial crew programme Manager Kathy Lueders says, “What happened was it hit a fitter and that happens during system startups, and id did exactly what it was supposed to do, it flipped over to a second leg - we have a lot of redundancy in the system – and the crew was able to go in and clear it up,” she says.

It was an issue of a startup censor getting everything aligned.

“Nothing really happened to the system,” she says. “The system’s working great. Like I said, it’s just a little bit of a startup glitch.”

The second crew mission will be flown in about 4.5 months, says Shotwell.

A journalist has asked how “wired in” Elon Musk was to the launch and where he watched it from.

“He was tied in very closely to the launch, I have a series of texts to prove it,” says Shotwell. Strangely, she does not say where he was when he watched it.

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, topped with Crew Dragon capsule, is launched.
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, topped with Crew Dragon capsule, is launched. Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

Updated

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and COO, says that she has an update from Dragon, and that it is thankfully: “all systems nominal”.

This is “the beginning of a new era in human spaceflight,” she says.

Hiroshi Sasaki, the Vice President and Director General of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), has called it a “beautiful launch” and said he is especially grateful to everyone for what they have achieved considering the coronavirus pandemic.

Press conference begins

NASA administrator James Bridenstine says that today’s flight represents a move from tests to operational flights.

“This is a great day for America and a great day for Japan and we look forward to many years of partnership not just in lower earth obit but all the way to the moon,” he says.

Of the more than 300 astronauts NASA has sent to space, just 14 have been Black, the New York Times reports. Next year, “he could be followed by Jeanette Epps, who would be the first Black woman to to be part of an I.S.S. crew. She will fly aboard the first operational crewed trip of Boeing’s Starliner capsule,” according to the Times.

You can read more about this here.

Updated

Victor Glover will be the first Black crew member on board the ISS

Time to meet another one of the Dragon crew, former Navy commander and test pilot Victor Glover. When Glover boards the International Space Station tomorrow, he will not be the first Black astronaut to do so, but he will be staying for significantly longer than others have, according to the New York Times, and wil therefore be the first Black crew member on board the ISS.

Tonight’s launch was Glover’s first ever space flight. The highest up he’s been until now is 20km above ground.

The International Space Station is over 400km from earth.

Meet Victor Glover.

Updated

The crew have nor removed their flight suits and are drying them, NASA TV tells us. They are now having private consultations with their doctors to make sure that they are all physically A-OK.

Back to the liftoff: commander Mike Hopkins just after the Dragon took flight, “By working together through these difficult times, you’ve inspired the nation, the world, and in no small part the name of this incredible vehicle, Resilience.”

Once reaching orbit, he radioed: “That was one heck of a ride.”

Updated

Do you have questions about the mission? Ask them on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

NASA to hold press conference at 9.30pm ET

There will be a press conference in 25 minutes’ time – we’ll bring that to you live.

People watched the launch from cities around the world – including London in the UK, Gaborone in Botswana, Athens in Greece and and Bangkok, Thailand.

Here is the footage of the second stage’s separation from the Dragon capsule earlier:

Here is more on the crew and mission from our story earlier:

The crew, led by Hopkins, an air force colonel, includes physicist Shannon Walker and navy commander and rookie astronaut Victor Glover, who will be the first black astronaut to spend an extended period onboard the space station – a full five to six months. Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi will become only the third person to rocket into orbit onboard three different kinds of spacecraft.

They named their capsule Resilience, in recognition of all the challenges in 2020, most notably the global pandemic.

Nasa is calling the flight its first “operational” mission for a rocket and crew-vehicle system that was 10 years in the making. It represents a new era of commercially developed spacecraft - owned and operated by a private entity rather than Nasa - for sending Americans into orbit:

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission. Photograph: Joel Kowsky/AP

Updated

NASA TV tells us that the astronauts do not do laundry, but rather simply discard their used items. We are now waiting for the crew to start eating dinner before hopefully falling into a deep sleep in microgravity.

Back on earth, you can see that everyone in the control centre is is wearing a mask.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced last week that he “most likely” has Covid-19, so he is not present:

Someone has asked NASA what the most crowded the International Space Station has ever been – the answer is 13 people.

Once the Dragon’s four crew members arrive, the total will be seven. Those seven people will be living together for six months.

We’re also hearing more about the experiments the crew will conduct - including using “tissue chips” which the presenters over at NASA TV have described as being able to “put organs on computer chips”. These chips will read the data from those organs.

If you want to read tweets sent from space, here are the astronauts’ Twitter handles:

US president-elect Joe Biden has sent his congratulations on the successful launch, calling it a “testament to the power of science”.

President Donald Trump said that thanks to his administration, NASA was now “the ‘hottest’, most advanced, space center in the world, by far!”

“Oh and one more thing, the view is beautiful,” the crew have just told the team on the ground at the end of an update on the phase burn (which went well):

SpaceX founder Elon Musk is *heart emoji* about the launch:

Here is our full story on the launch:

SpaceX has launched four astronauts to the International Space Station on the first full-fledged taxi flight for Nasa by a private company.

The Falcon rocket thundered into the night from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with three Americans and one Japanese onboard, the second crew to be launched by SpaceX. The Dragon capsule on top – named Resilience by its crew in light of this year’s many challenges, most notably Covid-19 – is due to reach the space station after 27-and-a-half hours and remain there until spring.

SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk was forced to monitor the action from afar after being sidelined by the virus. He tweeted that he “most likely” had a moderate case of Covid-19. Nasa policy at Kennedy Space Center requires anyone testing positive for coronavirus to quarantine and remain isolated.

Sunday’s launch comes just a few months after a two-pilot test flight by SpaceX and kicks off what Nasa hopes will be a long series of crew rotations between the US and the space station, after years of delay. More people means more science research at the orbiting lab, officials said.

“This is another historic moment,” Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine said on Friday. But he noted: “Make no mistake: Vigilance is always required on every flight.”

The flight to the space station should be entirely automated, although the crew can take control if needed:

The crew have enough food for twelve meals – plus snacks.

While on board the International Space Station, they will also be growing some food – specifically, radishes. But these will be mainly for scientific, not salad, purposes.

Other foods that have been studied in space are red lettuce and mizuna mustard greens.

The other experiments will include using their own biological samples so that scientists on earth can study how changes in their diets affect their bodies; and attempting to use fungi to “break apart asteroid rock and help extract useful metals — a scientific prelude to extraterrestrial mining operations, and a follow-up to a similar, successful experiment that used bacteria,” according to the New York Times.

Here is a diagram showing how the burns will happen over the course of the voyage:

Phase burn begins

That phase burn has begun. It will last for nine minutes and will raise the lowest point of dragon’s orbit to a higher altitude.

The burn is “proceeding nominally” or exactly as it should, we have heard.

The next burn will take place only after the crew has slept, so that they won’t be woken up.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket streaks toward space shortly after lifting off.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket streaks toward space shortly after lifting off. Photograph: Gregg Newton/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

The pump that experienced some trouble earlier is still functional, the operations team has confirmed.

The crew has been reminded to minimise their movements during the upcoming delta velocity burn, which is scheduled to start in just under one minute.

The crew members currently on board the International Space Station are asleep, but they will be waking up in around 4 hours’ time, we have just heard.

Unconfirmed reports that upon waking they will begin furiously cleaning the station, stuffing unfolded laundry into cupboards and quickly chucking all other objects too cumbersome to tidy away into their bedrooms.

They’ll take a long swig of cooking sherry and look utterly cool and composed when they open the space door.

More on the space suits here, for those who are interested:

Inside the SpaceX suit:

The cameras are being re-aligned.

Here is what they show currently. If you zoom in really far you can see many, many, coronaviruses:

It looks like there was a pressure spike on a pump in the thermo-control system, but the core operations team believe that the pump is still healthy. The core operations team is troubleshooting.

Cabinet environment is being assessed.

Over the next 27 hours, the thrusters on dragon will be fired five times to align the capsule to its destination. This will be going ahead despite the pressure spike.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket streaks toward space
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket streaks toward space in this time exposure at liftoff from launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photograph: Gregg Newton/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Space wellies!

Hacia las estrellas!

This is one for the Australian earthlings (an Opal card is a Metro or Subway card):

Here is what some of the earthlings saw:

Updated

Here is the beautiful footage of the separation:

The nose cone hooks are opening up.

Here is a view inside the Dragon capsule – and of some great space accessories:

Astronaut Mike Hopkins.
Astronaut Mike Hopkins. Photograph: Ashish Sharma/AP
Astronaut Victor Glover.
Astronaut Victor Glover. Photograph: Ashish Sharma/AP
Astronaut Shannon Walker.
Astronaut Shannon Walker. Photograph: Sam Friedman/AP
Astronaut Soichi Noguchi.
Astronaut Soichi Noguchi. Photograph: Sam Friedman/AP

Separation confirmed

Dragon is now separated from Stage 2.

The second stage will burn up upon re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere.

Ten seconds to Dragon separation.

Updated

Nominal orbit insertion

Stage 1 has touched down on the drone ship in the Atlantic.

Second-stage engine shut down has just happened on Stage 2.

Stage 2 has entered nominal orbit.

The crew inside Dragon 2 is now “coasting” in orbit, flying at 27,000km/h

Here they are:

What is nominal trajectory?

Essentially, this means the spacecraft is travelling exactly as it should, or, according to the Federal Aviation Administration: “if all vehicle aerodynamic parameters are exactly as expected, if all vehicle internal and external systems perform exactly as planned, and there are no external perturbing influences (e.g. winds) other than atmospheric drag.”

We have nominal trajectory.

This is a photo of 220,000 pounds of thrust in the vacuum of outer space. The vehicle is flying more than 2,000 metres per second.

Trajectory is nominal

That’s dragon and Falcon 9 on the right-hand side.

On the left is stage 1, which will now travel back to earth:

Stage separation confirmed

Stage separation is confirmed. The crew is now on its way to the International Space Station.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Crew Dragon capsule, is launched.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Crew Dragon capsule, is launched. Photograph: Thom Baur/Reuters

Updated

Dragon is now super sonic.

Liftoff

We have liftoff:

“Resilience rises, not even gravity contains hum

anity when we explore as one for all”, NASA’s presenters have said.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Crew Dragon capsule, is launched.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Crew Dragon capsule, is launched. Photograph: Thom Baur/Reuters

Updated

Stage 2 liquid oxygen load is complete.

Astronaut Soichi Noguchi has just said “The vehicle is alive”

T-4 minutes: strong back retract

The strong back retract has begun.

Clamp arms will open up and release, and the strong back will then retract.

The sound effects of this are incredible - a very spacey, spooky “whoosh” back and forth (a bit like a noisy dishwasher).

This sound is oxygen “hitting the warm, moist Florida air” we have just heard:

T-6 minutes: engine chill begins

Stage 1 engine chill has started. Liquid oxygen is flowing through the turbo pumps on Merlin 1.

With just under 6 minutes to launch, Stage 1 fuel load is complete.

Dragon’s computers will soon take control of the vehicle.

T-10 minutes

Liftoff will happen at 27 minutes and 17 seconds after 7pm local time.

Stage 2 fuel load is complete.

Stage 1 is 90% complete.

At T-7 minutes the pre-valves will be opened. This will allow a small amount of oxygen in to chill the pumps so that the liquid oxygen does not turn into gas on contact with the turbo pump.

Here is a shot inside the capsule:

“We are honoured to have you as our crew,” Commander Mike Hopkins has told the crew.

The launch today will take 27.5 hours to get to the station.

The day started with a 50% probability of launch, and now that likelihood (which is based on the weather) is 80%.

The only female astronaut on board, Shannon Walker, who has a PhD in space physics, was four years old when she decided she wanted to become an astronaut, we have just heard.

She told Florida Today, “Ultimately, to me being an astronaut means being an explorer to explore the universe so I thought being a physicist wanting to understand the universe and then being an explorer to go out and see it first hand was what I really wanted to do.”

NASA astronaut Shannon Walker and Mike Hopkins talk with family as they exit the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building.
NASA astronaut Shannon Walker and Mike Hopkins talk with family as they exit the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building. Photograph: Cj Gunther/EPA

Updated

Noguchi is today’s mission specialist:

The four astronauts on board are, Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker of NASA and Soichi Noguchi of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency).

Noguchi is the first foreign astronaut allowed on a US spacecraft.

NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Soichi Noguchi at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Soichi Noguchi at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photograph: SPACEX/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

T-28 minutes: checks

We’ve just heard that the rain and upper altitude wind are holding off, and the ground winds are light.

The ground operations teams are doing a series of checks.

A NASA helicopter flying past a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
A NASA helicopter flying past a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A as the countdown progresses. Photograph: Joel Kowsky/NASA/ HANDOUT/EPA

Updated

T-34 minutes: fuelling begins

The fuelling of the Falcon 9 rocket is underway and the launch escape system is armed, which means that the eight “Super-draco” engines built into Dragon are loaded, meaning they can propel the crew away from Falcon 9 to safety in an emergency.

The fuel is kerosene, with an oxidiser.

To ignite the fuel and oxidiser, ignition fluid is used. This fuel gives off a green flash, which we might see tonight.

The Dragon capsule was loaded with propellents a week and a half ago, in what one of the voiceovers on Nasa’s live feed says is an area affectionately referred to as “dragon land”.

T-43 minutes: crew arm retracted

The tunnel that the crew used to climb on board the Dragon has been retracted, in what the voiceover on Nasa’s live feed of the launch called, “One of the last visual milestones we have until launch”:

Updated

T-40 minutes: 80% chance of good weather

It’s T-40 minutes as I type, and the four crew members are on board. They are launching out of launchpad 39A, the weather report has been updated to an 80% chance of good weather, and the launch director is awaiting the results of the “Go/no-go poll” or a launch status check.

Propellent loading will occur at T-35 minutes.

Updated

Dragon capsule prepares for launch

The SpaceX crew is strapped in and preparing for launch in approximately 45 minutes’ time.

SpaceX is aiming for a Sunday night launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station, although the prospects of good weather were just 50-50 and the company’s leader, Elon Musk, has been sidelined by Covid-19.

If it goes ahead, the launch will be Nasa’s first full-fledged mission sending a crew into orbit aboard a privately owned spacecraft. The company’s newly designed Crew Dragon capsule was set for liftoff at 7:27pm Eastern time (0027 GMT on Monday).

Below is our rundown of what is expected, and I’ll be bringing you the latest developments live in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

You can find me on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, and astronaut Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, and astronaut Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Photograph: Gregg Newton//AFP/Getty Images

Updated

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