SpaceX: How to Watch Saturday’s Historic Rocket Launch

After weather conditions forced the highly anticipated SpaceX Demo-2 launch to be scrubbed on Wednesday, SpaceX and NASA are prepared to try again on Saturday, May 30th at 3:22 p.m. ET. Should all go as planned, the Crew Dragon spacecraft will lift off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, the first time in nearly a decade that American astronauts will launch into space in a rocket built in the United States. As guidelines put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic have seen both SpaceX and NASA recommend that excited space fans refrain from trying to watch the launch in person, there’s will be an extensive live stream across social media platforms for people to watch from the comfort of home. Here’s how to do it.

The historic launch will be available to watch across both NASA and SpaceX’s social media platforms, including Twitter. The launch as well as supplementary programming is also available to watch live beginning at 11 a.m. ET on NASA’s YouTube channel. Post-launch coverage will also continue on NASA’s YouTube live stream through the post-arrival news conference on Sunday. In addition to the YouTube livestream and coverage across social media, national news outlets may also cover the event — though you’ll want to check those outlets closer to time of launch as coverage may vary.

The Crew Dragon will be lifted into space by a Falcon 9 rocket with 1.7 million pounds of thrust from its first stage engines with the spacecraft’s intended destination being the International Space Station. At the helm of Crew Dragon will be astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley. The launch marks the first manned launch for the Elon Musk-Founded SpaceX. If you’re unfamiliar with SpaceX, you can find part of their official mission statement below.

“Building on the achievements of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, SpaceX is working on a next generation of fully reusable launch vehicles that will be the most powerful ever built, capable of carrying humans to Mars and other destinations in the solar system.”

The full schedule for NASA’s live stream of the event can be found below. All times are Eastern.

May 30, Saturday

11 a.m. – NASA TV launch coverage begins
3:22 p.m. – Liftoff
4:09 p.m. – Crew Dragon phase burn
4:55 p.m. – Far-field manual flight test
TBD p.m. – Astronaut downlink event from Crew Dragon
6:30 p.m. – Postlaunch news conference at Kennedy

May 31, Sunday

TBD a.m. – Astronaut downlink event from Crew Dragon
10:27 a.m. – Docking
12:45 p.m. – Hatch Open
1:15 p.m. – Welcome ceremony
3:15 p.m. – Post-arrival news conference at Johnson

Are you excited for Saturday’s SpaceX/NASA launch? Let us know in the comments below.

The historic launch is presently scheduled for 3:22 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 30th, though weather could delay the launch.