NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 Crew Arrival at Kennedy Space Center

Representatives from NASA participate in a media event at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday, Feb. 25, upon the arrival of NASA astronauts Commander Matthew Dominick, Pilot Michael Barratt, and Mission Specialist Jeanette Epps, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Mission Specialist Alexander Grebenkin in advance of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Participants include: Jennifer Kunz, associate director, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center; and Dana Hutcherson, deputy manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Launch is currently targeted for 12:04 a.m. EST, Friday, March 1. The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, named Endeavour, will launch on a Falcon 9 rocket from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

What is said in the film

Good afternoon and welcome to NASA's Kennedy Space Center. We're here live in Florida as we just watched the crew of NASA's Space X Crew eight mission arrive. The crew, you could not have picked a more beautiful day to arrive. So welcome. This is going to be their last stop before they head off into their spacecraft and launch to the International Space Station in the early morning hours of March 1st.

We're really excited to talk to the crew soon. But first, I want to introduce Jennifer Coons, associate director for NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Thank you and good afternoon. It is another beautiful Florida day, and we are excited to welcome our four crew members to America's spaceport. This week's launch is NASA's eighth operational mission to the International Space Station.

Under the commercial crew program and the first operational crewed mission from Kennedy this year. Even though we have a robust manifest here at the spaceport, these missions are never routine routine to us. The next few days at Kennedy Space Center, we will be having. It'll be a busy time as we prepare to launch Crew eight and addition to the crew's arrival today. Our team is assembled to conduct the flight readiness review ahead of Friday's early morning launch.

I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who has been working so diligently behind the scenes in the months leading up to this mission. Our NASA team has been working hand-in-hand with our international and commercial partners, and we are looking forward to a successful launch and mission. We're excited to welcome NASA's Matthew Dominic, who will serve as mission commander, NASA's Michael Barrett mission pilot, NASA's Jeanette Epps, who is a mission specialist, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Rincon, who will also be serving as a mission specialist. Seeing this disembark and standing on this runway means we are in the final days before launch. And that is always a great day for us here at KSC.

Before we hear from the crew, I'd like to take a moment and introduce you to someone whose leadership has been instrumental in the success of the Commercial Crew program. As we've returned humans to low-Earth orbit from American soil. She's been here since the beginning and serving as the deputy program manager of the Commercial Crew Program here at Kennedy Space Center. Please join me in welcoming Dana Hutcherson. Dana.

Thank you, John. And thank you for everyone being here today. It is a special day, beautiful day for crew arrival, the start of getting ready for our launch. I'm Dana Hutcherson. I'm the deputy program manager for NASA's commercial crew program.

And I couldn't be more thrilled to be here today to see this crew who's going to fly on this Space X Crew mission. I'm so proud of where we are today. As Jen said, this is our eighth operational mission, but our ninth time sending astronauts to the International Space Station in a Dragon capsule from American soil. Very proud to be a part of this program. NASA and SpaceX teams have done a fantastic job of refurbishing this capsule and spacecraft, getting ready for the crews to fly.

The spacecraft is Endeavor and it's our fleet leader for CCP. It'll be the first time we're flying a capsule for the fifth time, and we're super excited about that. The crew will stay on space station for about six months performing critical research and science experiments that will not only benefit us here on Earth, but we'll look to use that effort to explore beyond low earth orbit. That exploration would only be possible with these commercial partnerships with Space X and these international relationships as well. Something that CCP and I assess programs are very proud of to be a part of and working hand-in-hand to establish and lay that foundational framework as we look to usher in this new era of space flight.

It's a very exciting time to be a part of NASA and part of the commercial crew program, and I'm very excited for humanity and I'm honored to be a part of that. But without further ado, I'm going to turn it over to the crew. So thank you very. Wow. It's it's great to be at the Cape.

I've been working at NASA's jet for about seven years, but because NASA's so awesome to work for, most people work at NASA's for decades. So I'm still relatively a newbie at NASA with seven years working here. But over that seven years, it's been absolutely incredible to watch space flight explode here at the Cape. With so many different rockets and new pads. In fact, I think about two visits ago we were out here.

We got to see a Falcon heavy launch. And coming from military aviation, we're used to flying airplanes, information. But to see two rocket boosters coming back in formation to land is incredible to me. So coming out here to the Cape every time I'm a kid in a candy store for me. In fact, actually, normally we get to fly the 38th out here for training and actually that's my parking spot over there.

But I would say otherwise. But coming out here for training is great. And it's just an incredible time to be involved in spaceflight. Who would've thought five or six years ago that this would be the fifth flight of Endeavor that we get to go on? Who have thought five or six years ago that the competition for launch or the constraint to launch would be a launch pad?

Right? We delayed our launch a few days because there's stiff competition to get out there to 39. It's not a rocket constraint, it's a pad constraint. So with that, I'd like to say that we're super excited to fly as Crew eight. I'm super excited to fly with this crew and Crew seven.

We're coming for you. Thank you, Matt. Thanks, Matt. I was really great to see you guys here today. It's great to fly on a beautiful day.

We're expecting the same thing for our launch. I have to note that 13 years ago and one day, 13 years and one day ago, I was down here to launch on SDS. 133 with my space brother, Eric BOE, who's over there in the sidelines. We probably overuse the term bittersweet because at that time, the space shuttle program was was coming to an end. We had a fabulous flight.

Discovery performed flawlessly. And it was just an amazing thing to bring her back 13 days later and to have to turn her over to her caretakers and kind of put her to bed forever. She's on display right now at the University center. A lot of people get to enjoy her. But two more flights and our shuttle program was done.

Most of us were hoping that there would be an overlap, not not a big gap, but we did have a gap. And when we came down here to watch Discovery be ported away from here, Kennedy Space Center was very quiet. It was so empty compared to what we were all used to for all this time. And we were all pretty sure that that KSC was going to come back. But we had no idea how much.

I would say KSC has come back with a vengeance. The fact that this spaceport is so busy, so vibrant is just an amazing thing. I know that two and a half hours from now or so, we have yet another space launch. In just a few days. We're ready to take off.

So it's just an absolute pleasure to see Kennedy Space Center being the thriving spaceport that it is. We're very honored to be a part of that. I cannot wait to get back to that magnificent station. I can't wait to fly this new spaceship. And I can't wait to fly with this crew.

So, again, really glad to be back here. And thanks for coming out. Dr. Ed? Well, it is great to see everyone here.

I guess as I as we land and I've been deep in thought about what all is about to happen to us, to this crew and what we're going to go do. And also when we landed, seeing all these people here, it's just reminded me of how many people are involved in getting us to space and all that it takes to get this crew from here into space. It's taken over a year. The work of training and all the trainers that helped us get here, all of the hours, the all of the flight readiness reviews, all the people looking out for us. And it is overwhelming to me how many people have contributed to this.

So I just want to thank everyone who's been involved, Jennifer and Dana, and everyone who has helped propel us to space on Friday. So I'm very grateful for this flight. I've trained for Soyuz, I've trained for Boeing, I've trained for a lot of vehicles. But I am honored to fly with this crew on the Dragon Endeavor. So thank you for coming.

Thanks again. And thanks to everyone who has been involved in getting us to space. As the rescue team said it showed us. Hello, everyone. memorabilia skulls on the top floor for that instructors goes as far away.

62. Almost gotta go. We've heard a lot of warm words towards instructors, trainers and all that who prepared us for the superstar genius. Come on. Going to tell them to keep.

And I agree with all those words said by my crewmates to be courteous, just like the first some of fish in a believable, emotional good time. Your skittering rover Katrina's just featureless dealer in especially Mickey Possum. And I would like to add that we had an intensive training course. We had a lot of joint simulations that really made us crew. This is just mechanisms of neutropenia, of a natural starter, and we're looking forward to our launch know variants of something.

You can assure you. Of course, my life's a complete but it goes outside and I'm I'm I think that everything will be okay and I will continue your human spaceflight to ensure we do so and we'll see each other again so as possible. Thank you. All right. Thank you to the crew.

So we're going to jump into our media Q&A portion. We have a microphone right here at the front. So please line up. If you'd like to ask the crew a question we ask you, please limit to one question at this time. And when you get up to the microphone, please state your name.

Media affiliation and if possible, if you'd like to speak to go ahead. Hi. Thank you. I'm Richard Tribune with the Orlando Sentinel. And this question is for both Matthew and Jeanette, your respective classes.

Jeanette, you're the last of your class to get to space. Matthew, You're the third, the last. And I just want to know what it's like to what are your feelings in finally getting to take off And if you have any sort of ribbing that you do for the people who are left behind. So technically, Jeanette I think your Canadian colleague hasn't gone to space yet. So that's affirmative.

So, you know, I guess any launch is a great launch if you have a mission. So that's even though you're the last, it doesn't matter. You get that launch, you get the mission and you go and you go. They always save the best for last. Do I think you were making a question?

Do we remember our classmates? Yes, a lot. It's it's an important part of the culture. That stuff doesn't matter as much. Like our job here in the astrophysics is just as important.

We're doing the ground job. You go to space, you get experience doing that, and you can bring that back and give back to the office. In many ways. So I may say six, just as excited to fly as I am to come back and do my ground job and contribute to the office and move human spaceflight forward. hi.

Well, Robinson Smith for spaceflight now. Good to see you all again. A question, I guess, first to Jeanette, but really for all the members of the crew, you mentioned, you know, going through a year of intensive training and getting to know each other and get familiarized, what would you say is kind of the moment that sticks out most your mind when you were going through the training process that you kind of felt like, okay, this is my crew. I'm kind of gelling with these, you know, the rest of my team right now. I have to admit that I've trained with so many different crews and, you know, so I have a baseline of where everybody is and how things go.

But from the start, even during our emergency sims and different events that we would go through, we've done pretty well as a crew. Everyone knows their job, they know where to insert, where, not to insert. So I think as a crew, each person brings their own strength to the crew and, you know, the contributions that each one makes has made all the training events almost seamless. So we've been pretty gelling from the beginning. So.

Hi there. I'm Greg Diesel Walk with Earth Sky. My question is for Dr. Barrett. What have you experienced in your previous missions that most prepares you for this one?

Every mission that builds to prepare you for the next, I'll give you my little niche as a space medicine guy. How the human adapts to spaceflight is just really amazing and the things that we've learned on station, because it's a well-equipped laboratory. We have a high flight rate of long duration fliers. It's a very rich source of really the basic kind of information we need to develop a medical standard of care. And so between the first or between this last flight and this flight, I actually put out the second edition of a space medicine textbook.

And we're actually in the process of doing a third edition of that space medicine textbook. And each time I do that, I try to figure out how how right we are. And then I fly. I've done that twice, and I figure out how wrong we are because we keep discovering new things, things right in our nose that are important. Things like this.

The eye thing, the eye brain changes. We've seen vascular system changes that we've seen. So I'd like to say if I'm prepared at all, it's to be an observer and I'm prepared to discover something new again that we just didn't see was hiding in plain sight in front of us. So it's still even though it's a it's just a big laboratory in low-Earth orbit, it's a place of discovery. So I think I'm prepared to discover something new.

Good question. Thank you so much. Hi. Thanks again for taking a second question for me. This one is for Jeanette.

But for the rest of you, I'm a little curious about when you're on station, do you get to climb into the other spaceships that dock I know you get to climb in the one that you're in, but you've got potentially Starliner. You might even get a dream chaser. And then the Soyuz and Jeanette, since you trained in all three, when they just let you in anyway. I would hope so. But I think someone else.

Well, there is no guards posted at the gates. All right. So there's reasons why everybody should have familiarity with the stack. And and I expect that that will absolutely be true. So and, you know, somebody asked, how do we gel as a crew, aside from the discipline and training and aside from the fact that you got four amateur comedians on our crew that do improv whenever they can, there's just huge curiosity amongst us.

So everybody will want to know every cubic centimeter of our stack volume that includes the dock ships and of course some of that we got to unload and reload. So I will. Robinson Smith Again, thanks for the follow opportunity. Question for Matthew. You mentioned, you know, it's great to have this role and be able to go to the SS, but you like doing all the jobs that you have leading up to in the previous seven years.

Question I guess first to you, but you know, to the rest the crew ever wants to tackle it as well. What are you looking forward to when you get back on Earth, bringing that onboard experience that you wouldn't necessarily have sort of the firsthand insight into? And how do you think that will better your jobs as part of the astronaut corps back here on earth? So my my background is in developmental flight test. And so before I was tied to this mission, I was involved in working on the development for Orion, HLS Starliner, and got to work a bit of time on each of those projects.

And I really love diving in deep with engineers to solve those tough problems. But my background in U. S. Navy was doing Department of Flight Test. But the Navy thinks it's very important, I think rightly so, that the people doing the test have operational experience.

And so in the Navy you would go operational, go to flight test and then go back operational and then go back and flight test. That way you always had the relevant experience, right? You didn't you didn't want something to be developed in a vacuum. You didn't want to build an airplane in a vacuum. The same way.

We don't want to build a spaceship in a vacuum, but it's going to fly in a vacuum. But you want to build it in a mental vacuum, so to speak. You want to have it. The experience of the operator being injected with the engineers and they work as a cohesive team. So going and getting this operational experience and then coming back and helping develop the next spacecraft.

Right. Thank you. All right. It looks like everybody's had an opportunity to ask their questions. Yeah, it looks like that's the case.

So I know I have a question from that. We're getting a lot from our online audiences for you guys, and we'll wrap with this one. What is your last meal going to be before launching in the space Helping was to discuss those two things. Looking at the concrete and concrete again, I think everybody ordered something special for that particular crewmember. Member Yeah, there's also the Q what's it looks current products on the menu that comes out of the soup.

I decided to go with a traditional meal. I will have a soup. Always share some green vegetables in a meal. So I've got a new one and some meat with some starch or side dish watching. And you also, you know, nothing special.

So yeah, we all. Okay. You know, sometimes when people ask that question, they think it's because we get up there and we just crave and miss foods. You don't for six months, you're going to eat food. That seems very appropriate to this magical place you're in.

And so now that I've done this a couple of times, I'm kind of like Sasha. I'm just ordering food that I like. So I'm going to have grilled salmon and some grilled vegetables to go along with it. But but frankly, I can't wait to get up to the galley table and have some shrimp cocktail in some Russian tomorrow. So I think somebody made a comment earlier about ribbing each other.

That's that's a good part of crew cohesion. We've had a pretty long running joke. We love we love working with Sasha. He's awesome. He's very consistent.

Every time we'd be on travel, for example, out to Los Angeles to go to Space X, you know, Hey, where are we going to dinner tonight? His answer was always, It must have beef. It needs beef. So it became very consistent. So we love that.

He's very consistent. We knew what he would pick for his last meal. And so for me, I you know, we get to eat our cooked meals in space. We've had a lot of cool meals on the ground. It's more about the people you're with.

But for me, I just said, whatever Mike's having because I trust his culinary choice. And I actually did the same thing. I kind of chose the foods that I love to eat, like butter, chicken and saag and things like that. So nothing very special. It's just you want kind of the comfort foods of home that you normally have and you want to enjoy those just you know, while you're here.

And then you go to space. Like Mike and Matt said, you have the great foods on orbit and then we come back and, you know, we do the same thing. So thank you. All right. NASA's Space X Crew, eight Mission crew.

Thank you so much to all the media here with us today. Thank you so much for coming. Meanwhile, the flight readiness review is underway. We're going to be having a post flight readiness review telecon at approximately 6 p. m..

Thank you all for joining us. We'll see you then. Yeah,

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