The @spacex Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket are at the launchpad.
Next week:
a new era of human spaceflight begins.
🚀🇺🇸⁣
⁣
Two @nasaastronauts,
Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley (@astro.doug)
will be the first to fly aboard the Crew Dragon.
This mission,
targeted for liftoff Wednesday,
May 27 at 4:33 p.m.
EDT from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center,
will serve as an end-to-end demonstration of SpaceX’s crew transportation system.
Our astronauts will once again launch on an American rocket from American soil to the International Space Station,
for the first time since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.
⁣
⁣
Image Credit:
NASA/Bill Ingalls⁣
⁣ #rocket #spacecraft #nasa #spacex #launchamerica

They’re ready.
Are you?⁣
⁣
Today #LaunchAmerica astronauts Robert Behnken and @astro.doug arrived at @nasakennedy in Florida to start final preparations for liftoff.
On May 27,
they’ll make history in the first launch of American astronauts from American soil in nearly a decade.
Click the link in bio to learn more.

#OTD in 2009,
after astronauts completed upgrades and repairs,
@NASAHubble was released to resume observing the universe.
⁣
🌌
⁣
In this image,
space shuttle Atlantis'
remote manipulator system arm lifts the telescope from the shuttle's cargo bay moments before release.
⁣
⁣
This was the fifth and final servicing mission for Hubble.
Over five spacewalks,
astronauts installed two brand-new science instruments:
the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS)
and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
They also prolonged Hubble's life by installing new batteries,
new gyroscopes,
a new science computer,
a refurbished fine guidance sensor and new insulation on three electronics bays.⁣
⁣
Image Credit:
NASA⁣
⁣ #hubble #nasa #telescope #upgrade