'Let's Go Fly': Crew-1 Astronauts Arrive At Kennedy Space Center For Saturday's Launch

Four astronauts of NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 mission have arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of its launch.

After several delays, the Crew-1 mission is expected to launch on Saturday at 7:49 p.m. EST after NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Michael Hopkins, Shannon Walker and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Soichi Noiguchi safely arrived at the Kennedy Space Center over the weekend.

They were welcomed by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, Deputy Administrator Jim Morhard, Center Director Bob Cabana and manager for JAXA's International Space Station (ISS) program, Junichi Sakai.

"I can't tell you how great it is to welcome a crew here to go to space again. I envy each and everyone of you," Cabana said. "This whole effort to commercialize low Earth orbit, this is just a gigantic step in making that happen."

"Our patch has no name on it. Because our mission is for everyone," Noiguchi said, NASA shared on Twitter. "In fact, Crew-1 is You-1. All for one, one for all. Now, let's go fly."

The Crew Dragon spacecraft, which will carry the four astronauts to the ISS, arrived at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A on Nov. 5, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

After the Saturday launch, the spacecraft is expected to dock at the ISS at 4.20 a.m. the next day. There, the Crew-1 astronauts will join Expedition 64 members Kate Rubins, Sergey Rhyzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov. As part of the mission, the astronauts will be spending about six months aboard the ISS before returning to Earth in May, Space.com reported.

The mission faced several delays in the past. Most recently, it was delayed in October after an "off-nominal behavior" was detected on the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Now, it's a weather issue the Saturday's launch may be facing, NASA Spaceflight reported, as Tropical Storm Eta is expected to pass close to the Kennedy Space Center on the day of the launch.

After the successful Demo-2 mission earlier this year, the upcoming Crew-1 mission will be the first crew rotation flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon under NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

"The Crew-1 mission is a major step for NASA's Commercial Crew Program," NASA said in a blog. "Operational, long-duration commercial crew rotation missions will enable NASA to continue the important research and technology investigations taking place onboard the station."