Agenda, the nomination of judy shelton to serve on the Federal Reserve board of governors. Watch the house of representatives live on cspan and the senate, live on cspan two. We are just standing by. This is a view outside the Neil Armstrong operations and checkout building. Inside is the historic astronaut crew quarters and sit up room. Quarters. Theres look at the doors that the crew will be walking out of any moment now. There is a view of the door the crew will be stepping out of any moment. And you see the sticker on the door. You can see along the door frame, even more stickers, i believe theres one sticker from every mission but i did notice that there was just enough room to put the crew 1 sticker up. Here they come. The crew 1 astronauts now beginning their journey to the launch pad ahead of this Historic Mission to the International Space station. Outside the bil building, we hae friends and Family Gathering there with prior to liftoff. Thats a different thing to the shuttle days. Last time we saw our the day before launch. Typically, shuttle launches you would have employees and people that would come out to wish us well. I think its a very special thing that the crew families get that up close and personal right before they get into the transport vehicles to the pad. You notice everyone keeping safe distance here. That distance will be enforced regardless whether covid19 was a factor in whats going on. Distance is maintained regardless. Like i mentioned therefore, there are three teslas that will be taking our crew out in the first car, well have couple of suit technician. The second car will be mike hopkins and Shannon Walker as well as our flight surgeon. Then the last car we will have victor glove and Soichi Noguchi as well as one of our other closeout leads. The suits are assigned. The seats in the capsules are assigned as well as the seats in the checklist. Theres no fire drills happening here today. You can hear ambient conversations between the crew and their immediate families. [applause] such a special moment for them to to have. This crew has said a couple of times, siochi is the funniest one of them all. This is all very carefully choreographed. You can see in one of the shots from some of the ropes. There are lots of people involved in the planning of where the immediate families are going to stand, where the small contingent of media will stand, especially in covid times, where we have to make sure were keeping the crew safe and their families safe. They were able to have a little extra time with their families yesterday because we moved off of yesterday as launch day. They had extra down time. I imagine it was nice for them. You mentioned everything is very well choreographed. While this is the first time that were seeing the crew make this journey to the pad on the day of, fingers crossed, they have performed this a number of times including a dry dress earlier this week. Everything that this crew does is rehearsed many times. Whether its putting the suits on, or taking them off. Or even the operations connectivities they have going on during the mission. Everything is rehearsed and practiced. I can tell you, feels a little different. I have no doubt. [laughter] immediate family members getting a chance to have another moment with the crew before they leave. Youll see some of the folks there in the blue flight suits. Those are astronauts from the Astronaut Office that are working as crew support astronauts for the families and the crew members. I mentioned earlier, the teslas we utilized in the last crew mission, you can tell which teslas those are because of the stickers in the lower passenger side window. I cannot get good read of the license plate. For demo 2 they said iss bound. Thats good. I think another one might say later earth. The crew departing for the pad on schedule. We just heard the callout from the core that the crew is departing if the pad. They are right on schedule. They are leaving the Neil Armstrong operations check out building. Now beginning 20 minute across nasas cusse Kennedy Space cent. They will drive right behind where were sitting. There are scores of people around the world watching and cheering on these four souls including many team member who helped get the crew here today. Take a look. This is Stephanie Duncan from the commercial crew program at Johnson Space center. Youre all an inspiration to us. From texas to you, godspeed [indiscernible] aloha, on behalf the production facility, congratulations to our crew on astronauts and as well as spacex and nasa teams. Safe travels and best of luck. We hope you enjoy the journey of International Space station. Go dragon, go nasa and thank you for riding the space. [speaking foreign language] from commercial Program Program team, mike, victor, shannon and Soichi Noguchi. Go crew 1. Go victor, shannon and siochi. This is mike here, we all worked tirelessly and now its time to fly. We hope they enjoy ride. Go dragon. [applause] this is Amber Jacobson at the Nasa Space Communications and navigations program, were all so excited for your launch. Well be working hard down here making sure you stay connected with earth. Stay safe and lets launch america. Hi im im Johnson Space center in houston, texas. Godspeed and good luck to mike, victor, san shannon and siochi. Go crew 1 we love hearing from those team members. It was really great to get the jaxa Team Included in the messages. We are following the convoys out to launch pad 39a. We understand that the crew has ride out play list. We tried and tried, could not find out what that play list was. I think thats top secret. We have some conversation amongst ourselves what they might be listening to. My personal pick will be something from queen. We need to have donate stop me now going here. Perfect going to space song. Mine will be something by with the spacesuit looking futuristic robot, aliens. As were watching the crew, this is from our chase car. The road is shut down in either direction for the convoy. We are on opposite side of the road with a camera literally so you can see along with the crew every step of the way. I know we had to cut things short earlier, i imagine theres been lot of reaction to the things folks are seeing and sure you got some thoughts on a play list as well. Yeah. Lot of patriotism and well wishes for the crew. That ride out play list question so fun. I think if im awesome enough to be an astronaut, i will be playing feeling myself thats something we should pose to the public. For those of you watching now, head over to nasas twitter and were going to get a question out to know to ask, whats one song you would have to have on your ride out play list to launch pad . Ladies, im very excite to see what comes in. Ill keep you updated. I just got notification of the play list what are they listening to now . They are in two different vehicles. Theyre on one play list. We have songs like alicia keys, phil collins, eminem, other vehicle, fly away by lenny kravitz. Up funk by bruno mars. Those are really good ones. Nicole, obviously theyre in a pair of teslas. Little different than your ride out experience. Can you compare, contrast for us . We rode out in something called at a the astro van whichs really cool. Theres something about this ride. The word surreal comes to mind a lot. Youre thinking like, im in a vehicle thats striving to a launch pad to take me to space. Its difficult to believe that can be happening. I wonder how did it feel any different the first time versus the second time . Victor is the first timer here and others second or third. There goes the hilo, thats leading the way. Thats our cue that the convoy will be passing by us shortly. I think just like launch on your second time, you think oops, been there and done that. The adrenaline, the feeling is equally as excited on the second time too. I know you all watching the convoy. Were turning around in our chairs because it looks like, is that the first car . Thats probably the lead vehicle there. I think we see the lead car going by. Were all turned around in our seats to watch them in person. Something thats really cool they are passion the Vehicle Assembly building and vab, very famous building here in nasa. Theyre driving down the road where the shuttle and the saturn used to come down on the crawler. As were getting awesome look of the crew passing by. Among you following along on nasa tv and online. Very special group of folks. Some that the crew might recognize. Take a look. Hellore Aerospace Engineers from university of illinois. University of illinois family like to wish mike very best on his launch to International Space station. Youre a huge inspiration to all of us. Whats up everyone, im from cal poly. Victor gloves alma mater. We want to wish victor all crew 1 a safe launch and wonderful mission to the International Space station. Youre an inspiration to us all. Thank you for representing cal poly well. Hi, im ryan from Rice University students for the exploitation and development of space. Shannon walker and crew mates safe one. Successful mission. Fly high. Im from university of tokyo school of engineering. Siochi youre a huge inspiration. We cant wait to so you in space. Have a good day. Hey guys have a safe trip. Go nasa, go crew 1. This is rob blevins at the Discovery Center in springfield, missouri. We want to thank mike, shannon and victor and siochi, go nasa and go spacex, go make history. Im nasa astronaut drew, im here with my fellow astronauts, to wish crew 1 a successful and exciting ride to the International Space station on spacex dragon. Were excite to see you launch in space. Congratulations to mike hopkins, victor glove, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi. Go crew 1. The crew is continuing to make their way to launch pad 39a were at t minus 3 hours 3 minutes. In about 8 minutes, we should hear the announcement of the crew arriving at the pad. Love hearing those shot outs. I think that little girl was mill favorite. Nicole, the first time you saw that video, got to see lot of familiar faces from the astronaut core. Its fun. The other woods are living vicariously. Pretty cool. Now with the eyes so many around the world watching, the crew is nearing their next milestone at this point, the convoy is approaching pad 39a and entering what is known as the bda, or blast danger area. Before any pad technicians, engineers or astronauts enter this area around the launch pad, the spacex and nasa teams have to do internal go, no go polls to make sure everything is clear. The view that we have now, i just love it. This pad is this is the pad where humans went to the moon. This is pad 39a and originally benefit in the 1960s to support the saturn 5 for the apollo program. Was upgraded to support the Shuttle Program. We did remove the rotating Service Structure. The heart and bones of the six Service Structure from the shuttle days is still there. We made some modifications and safety improvements. As something that also little different, the hangar is built there, allow us to the integration much closer to the pad itself than in the shuttle and sat. Its really neat to see them. They are driving up on to the pad. I love thinking about everything that has happened here and appreciate that we have the opportunity to continue human space flight from such a historic location. Really strikes me that the last time we saw this happening was back in the spring with bob behnken and doug hurley. We saw them looking up to take in the height of the pad. Knowing they were about to get on a rocket that will come to leaf. Now we have a full crew of four and its just spectacular to know what is just around the corner for them. From their standpoint, standing out there on the pad, they have to look up about 70 meters, considering everything thats holding the rocket up. I think thats part of the awe of it too. You have to bend back in the suits. You want to take it in little bit. I know heard siochi earlier echo the sentiments, you get out on the pad, the vehicle is already alive before you take off. Little bit of smoke, steam coming out of there and its ready to go as well. I love what youre talking about with the transformation of the pad. I think i was very fortunate to fly times out of 39a on discovery. One side you want the pad to stay the way it was. Hall, its changing. That new opportunities are opening up. Its allowing us to get back to space son a new vehicle and into the future space exploration. The Shuttle Program was the Space Flight Program of my childhood. Theres absolutely nostalgia soc. Soc. Associated with that see structure. The reason why we dont see the crew now, we saw them pull up to the base of the pad. They have an opportunity for a bio break before they get into the elevator. Thats something you cant overlook. Important stop you have to make. Were giving them a chance to do that. We will probably hear the official call out that the crew arrived a the pad at t minus 2 55. One other thing, for folks arent familiar with the operational timeline for falcon 9, theres no fuel in the rocket yet. Can you explain that process . In order to make sure that the nine marlin engines have the best performance possible, we wait as long as we can. All personnel has arrived on schedule. Good call there, confirming that we are on schedule. As i was saying, we want to make sure that the nine engines have the best performance possible and in order to do that, we use super densified, super chilled liquid oxygen. We get better performance by having more oxidizer. We wait in the larger time line of things, it is seems like last minute. Its around the t minus 35 minute mark that well begin that loading on first and second stages with liquid oxygen. Crew dragon, though, has already been fueled. Yes, the capsule itself. The dragon capsule use hypergollic fuels that are instantaneously com combustible. You put ther two together, the fuel and oxidizer and they come bust. Those fuels were loaded on to the capsule earlier in the week. It might have been last week. Im losing track of the days at this point. That is all done prior to integration. Thats all done in area called dragon land. We have what is called a dry dress rehearsal of this entire process without fueling the rocket. Theres no fuel involved. That happened on thursday. Im mixing up my days like you, kate. Thursday, there was a dry dress rehearsal where they went through the whole process. So, to recap, we had a dry dress rehearsal on thursday where the teams went through the entire process starting in the suitup room right up to the pad. They ingress dragon, closed the hatch and they simulated a scrub of an hour or so before the simulated launch time. That is the last opportunity i think nicole, during shuttle days, they called it the tcdt. Terminal countdown test. Dry run. How important is that final opportunity to do that before the real thing . I think its really important. We found it was so that we are continuing a now. Theres something about having the team in that really in that launch mode. Real vehicle at the pad, shortly before the actual time its going to come to run through these things. To give the crew an opportunity an hour before to run through what it will be like if they needed to scrub and kind of countdown and escape baskets or down to the base of the pad out of harms way. Just get your head in the right place. We actually had a scrub with bob behnken and doug hurley. That first day, scrubs happened at all the way down to t minus 17 minutes. Falcon 9 was still well into the fueling process and the crew cant egress from the capsule until off load the fuel. Hopefully we wont be in a situation hike that like that today. Well see. Here they are, the astronauts are begun to emerge from their bio break. I think that might be victor and siochi. I think that might be shannon. They are getting inside elevator. We have something called the advance team. When i learned about this thats mike and shannon. When i learned about the advance team, they are responsible for making sure the hatch is open, the cabin has communications and lights. They are responsible for making sure that someone has the elevator key. You cant just get in there. When the astronauts ascend here, just as in the old days, the levels of the tower are not marked one, two and three, they are marked by foot height. They press the 255foot button and ride to the top. Heres our first look at that level where they come out of the elevator. They have a hand full of stairs to climb to get up to the level where the crew access arm is. Thats that long suspended walkway. Look how beautiful. Its listen a long time since i had the privilege being up there and seeing that view up in person. Words dont do it justice. Heres a view. You can see the nasa arm. On the far end, that is where the phone is. Can you talk about the significance of the phone . I think they maintained the same original phone with the big hand set it was one last opportunity to call your family before loading up into the vehicle. I dont know, i love that nasa, now spacex and have maintained these personal touches to the humans that are part of human space flight. I think its really important that we do those kinds of things. One of the thing that you will notice are the white arrows pointing towards us on the camera. Thats not just for design. Theres a very it does look cool they are very intentional. This will be victor and siochi now approaching the pad. Mike and shannon got a head start. Here they go. Its kind of like the preflight, the walk around your vehicle before you get in and fly. I feel like this one carries little more weight. Incredible. I want to come up with a name for the move that they have to do when they turn and bend and look back. Its the dont fall backwards move. Were having lot of fun here. Know the crew is having a blast. There they are. I knew they were going to do it. They must have so much adrenaline pumping through them. You know when you are getting on top of a rocket, your life is at stake. Thats not something in any of the people involved in this mission from start to finish takes for granted or take lightly. The folks who work on this program take that responsibility to heart. Like you said, nicole, when youre talking about relationships, they have those relationships with people across the nasa and spacex team. They walk the factory floor and hawthorn. They know the astronauts and they see them as family. Theres a look inside the crew access arm from inside. I love this shot. When this was being designed, it was definitely a forwardthinking design that we went west. We wanted it to encapsulate the experience of the next era of space flight. Really wanting to make it futuristic. Very sleek very sleek and elegant. Heres victor and siochi. They are standing now inside the white room. Were going to explain that in a minute. You can see the side hatch of dragon open and that is where they are going to ingress or climb inside in about 13 minutes. They are signing the wall there. The crew has arrived at the white room onl on schedule. Just notifying everyone that the crew arrived on time. We see shannon adding her signature to the wall in keeping with tradition, we painted this room white and the advance team, part of their responsibility also making sure theres a shar pesharpie on hand so so crew mes can add their name. I love this is really the last thing you do before we get in the space shutly. Shutly shuttle. On crew 2, one of the crew members will be meghan mccarthy, wife of bob who flew dm2. They are my definition of a power couple. Im here for it. I love it. Im excited to see what the seat assignments will be. It will be really cool if she was sitting in the same position as he was inside the capsule. Theres a wave. So exciting for siochi. Its early monday morning in japan. They set their alarm classrooms early enough to have a chance to watch. We talked about this once before where in the white room before, because with shuttle we didnt have that last meet and greet kind of thing at the onc before getting in the vehicles. We would do, we knew the camerasser were there, we knew families were watching. You couldnt say anything, you can do little love you thing. Sign language. The arrows, you cant see them on the screen, those are for emergency egress. If more any reason the crew has to get out of the capsule and white room and get away from the pad in a hurry, thats the path that it arrows show them go this way. Depending on the situation, you might have some smoke or the water system going. Tip your head down and you grab each other and go. If we were to do a quick exit from the tower, we utilize baskets that are so on ziplines. You can see on your screen, the crew beginning the ingress box already. The timeline has this happening t minus 2 hours 39 minutes. Look like they will be starting that early. There are four astronauts have to ingress. This doesnt happen in an instant. Its a process. Obviously that process has begun. We see some of the suit technicians there assisting them to get into their seat, making sure that boots are able to lock in. Making sewer that were able to do all the check outs necessary both in term of environmental controls but communication audio as well. I wasnt sure, do we have mike and shannon already inside . Okay, mike and shannon are inside. Victor and siochi has not made their way in the white room yet. They are finishing up their phone calls. Again, crew ingress is just a face flight term for getting inside the spacecraft. Mike hopkins and Shannon Walker has ingress crew dragon. Victor glover Soichi Noguchi are making their way. They will be walking down the crew access arm. Theres the outside of it. Theyre making their way down that hallway as we speak. They will be stopping in the white room in a moment. Its hard to see in that shot. Im very happy to say, we got blue skies and couple of puffy white clouds working with us. It might look overcast on the screen. Were pretty happy what weve got at the moment you can see the shadows moving along in the windows into the white room. Okay, there they are. This is a look inside the white room. Its not a very big space. Pretty tight. Thats by design. While victor and siochi getting chance to sign their names. I want to recap. If youre just joining us, youre watching live coverage of nasa spacex crew 1 mission. Today sending four astronauts into orbit on mission of International Space station. Victor glover, mike hopkins, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi, are flying on a sixmonth mission to the International Space station. Good afternoon and welcome to Kennedy Space center in florida im marie lewis. Public Affairs Officer for nasa. Im kate tight, senior certification engineer at spacex. Happy to be bringing you live coverage of the crew 1 mission from Kennedy Space center. Joining us is nicole stott it flown twice on the shuttle. Very nice to be here today with you ladies. The crew has already arrived at pad 39a where falcon 9 will lift off 7 27 p. M. Eastern. Victor glove and Soichi Noguchi are standing inside the white room. Mike hopkins and Shannon Walker are already inside crew dragon. Were fitting up the ear pieces now and just final check. They have ascended the tall structure next to rocket. Theyve walked down that futuristic looking corridor known as the crew access arm. Now they are about half way through the process aboarding dragon. Probablily little bit of ahead of schedule. Crew members are making their final stop. This is the white room. The white room is this small space. This is the last place the crew will be on earth before stepping into the spacecraft for their ride to the International Space station. Like i mentioned before, the term white room it has little bit of history. It was first used during the nasa Gemini Missions where the room was painted white. We continued this one by painting ours white as well. It is a pretty small area and it has enough room for the crew and couple of Ground Support members to allow them to complete late cargo load at t minus 24 hours and crew ingress running ahead of schedule at t minus 39 minutes. Ingress is how we refer to boarding on top of crew dragon. Inside the white room where were looking, theres a moveable platform that gets extended out to the capsule. That helps bridge the gap between crew access arm and the dragon side hatch. This allows for easy entry into the spacecraft. You might expect environmentally control so that the dragon side hatch has to be open. While at the same time keeping dust, dirt, nasty florida humidity out of the capsule to make sure it is just in for steam condition for the crew. Theres a large steel that gets inflated to make sure we can maintain clean environment. This is all really exciting to watch. You saw them take part in that tradition that weve mentioned couple of times. It began with our demo 2 crew of nasa astronauts bob behnken and doug hurley. They are now part of the select few who will have launched after leaving this room. As were waiting for our last crew member to hop inside crew dragon, lets check back in with jesse and leah, back at spacex headquarters in hawthorn, california. Everything is going good. We are so excited watching ingress now. As jesse just mentioned, this is ingress, that means the astronauts are entering the dragon capsule. Youll hear a lot of these space terms in the coming hours and day. Ingress is what we use when crew members getting inside a spacecraft and egress means the opposite. Before climbing in the capsule today, the crew completed foreign object degree check. That they themselves have to be inspected for any substance or debris which can cause damage to dragon. To help protect against debris, the crew has covers on their boots as well as their umbilical cord on their suits that need to be removed before they ingress. Theyre been doing that. Victor is up last completing that spot check. Once the check is complete, mike hopkins, our commander first ingress and then Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi and now were waiting for Victor Glover watching him enter the vehicle right now. They are now getting buckled in and attaching their umbilicals to their suits. The suit techs are there helping as needed. The umbilicals allow the crew to have coms through their suit to help keep cool as well as deliver suit pressure. As we mentioned, this is primary function to protect the crew in the event of a cabin depressurization. I love this view inside crew dragon. There are four seats configured right now. They are numbered 14 from right to left when youre looking at the seats. Mike hopkins is in suit 2 and victor glove in seat 3. Soichi noguchi is in seat 1 and Shannon Walker is in seat 4. Directly in front of them, which you can see here are three displays which theyll use throughout the flight, getting insight into dragon system, seeing any alerts or issues with the vehicle and if required they can take control and manually fly dragon. The crew will do a check to make sure they can hear Mission Control and their seats will be rotated in position to launch. They are finishing getting buckled in and getting their suits connected to the custom seats. Some those things to listen for when were doing com checks. Theyll be doing com checks in multiple paths. Theyll also youll hear ground that refer to ground stations around the globe. That spacex had and upon liftoff, those ground stations will be able to provide a telemetry from falcon 9 and crew dragon. Theres about half dozen checks to ensure everybody is ready in here. You can see those suitup crew. I heard people call them the ninjas before. They are checking to make sure they are super ready. They are helping them connect the umbilicals. They are buckling them in. They each have a very individual and specific role and we just stepped through this couple of days ago for the dry dress. Every ill detail w every sinl we stepped through it and buckle up and the com checks. Its kind of like run two but really day one. Its all very organized doing the practice runs helps make sure that everything goes smoothly on the day of launch like today. Looks like almost everybody all buckled up. Just finishing up with victor. Com check should occur once everybody is buckled in. Lot of excitement. Really cool to see four crew members. Just saw a wave from shannon there in that far left seat. Lets check in with john for the latest with the help of both vehicles. Whats the update so far . Weve got just over two and a half remaining in the countdown to the space station. Right now the dragon launch has completed their major activities prepare spacecraft for the astronauts, check outs maje majr systems are complete. Ingress to the astronauts are well under way getting victor strapped in. Were waiting for com checks with the crew and the ground coming up here shortly. Falcon 19 is located in room 4, they are settling in for final check outs for propellant loading and launch. Theyll be doing com check with the crew that, will happen t minus 2 hours. All systems are go on falcon launch vehicle. The Weather Forecast continues to be acceptable. Were watching the upper altitude rain showers if theyre in the trajectory of the vehicle, also watching thick cloud roll and keeping the fingers crossed. Were also looking at weather around the world. We need to make sure conditions are acceptable if dragon has to splash down in the atlanta. Were monitoring contingency splash locations if the crew has to come back to earth before docking. If this were to happen, spacex and nasa are coordinating with the u. S. Coast guard. That includes extra ships and air assets to control a lockout zone. As the clock continues to count down, all systems are go at t minus 2 hours 31 minutes. Thanks, john. Sounds like everything is looking good so far. Were getting really excited here and the astronauts are still wrapping up, buckling in and getting their suits connected to their seats. Definitely ahead of schedule today. Thats a good sign. Were really standing by those come checks with the crew. Some of people you will hear talking with the crew are the core, which weve mentioned. That is the crew operations and research engineer. We have a similar position at nasa. Thats the person who really takes all the information happening down on the ground and relay it to the crew. Theres the ld, thats the launch director. They are down in florida, they are overseeing all countdown operations. The md is here in hawthorn in Mission Control. Thats the overall flight lead for space station spacex. Theyre all finished getting buckled in. The seats will rotate into launch position. Once theroux state backwards, those display panels will be right in front of them and easy watch live on cspan. At cspan. Org or listen on the free cspan radio app. Here is a look at live coverage coming up today. On cspan at 10 00 a. M. Eastern, the middle east Institute Holds a discussion on u. S. Foreign policy under the incoming biden administration. A. M. , republican governor larry hogan of maryland talks about politics in the u. S. And the coronavirus response. The house returns for legislative business at 2 00 p. M. , picking up a number of bills on veterans issues. On cspan two, democratic representative phil hon omar omar talksr ilhan about the new legislative agenda for congress. At 3 00 p. M. , the senate works on a judicial nominee for the Southern District of mississippi with a procedural vote scheduled at 5 30 p. M. Eastern. Nasa launched four astronauts aboard the space x dragon capsule to the International Space station. Here is the launch. Spacex this is resilience, roger go. Go for launch and at 37 seconds the International Space station flying over Kennedy Space center. [speaking at the same time] crew one for all. Crew dragon poised to go catch it. 20ec