UPDATE: About four hours before the scheduled launch time, SpaceX announced that it was canceling Friday's launch attempt and would instead launch early Saturday morning.
NASA and SpaceX are getting ready to send four additional astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).
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The mission was originally slated to launch from Florida's Kennedy Space Center at 3:50 a.m. ET (12:50 a.m. PT) on Friday morning, but SpaceX said late Thursday that it will instead launch no sooner than 3:27 a.m. ET (12:27 a.m. PT) on Saturday, August 26. On Sunday, at 3:04 a.m. ET (12:04 a.m. PT), there will be a backup opportunity.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft that will accompany the Crew-7 mission previously flew NASA's Crew-3 and Crew-5 flights to and from the International Space Station.
Check SpaceX's social media streams for the most up-to-date information on the launch schedule.
The cause of the delay is unclear, with SpaceX simply stating that the crew and vehicle were fine and that the schedule modification would provide "additional time to complete and discuss analysis."
When the mission does take off, the first stages of the flight will be live-streamed using numerous cameras, with real-time audio feeds from Mission Control and the crew capsule also included.
Viewers can watch the always-remarkable spectacle of the reusable first-stage booster returning to Earth just minutes after it powers the capsule into orbit. Normally, it lands on a droneship off the coast of Florida, but for this mission, it will land at Landing Zone 1, close to the launch site.
After arriving at the space station on Saturday, the astronauts — NASA's Jasmin Moghbeli, the European Space Agency's Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos' Konstantin Borisov — will spend the next six months conducting science and technology demonstrations that will benefit humanity on Earth, as well as preparing for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft that will accompany the Crew-7 mission previously flew NASA's Crew-3 and Crew-5 flights to and from the International Space Station.
Check SpaceX's social media streams for the most up-to-date information on the launch schedule.