Video: NASA astronauts prepare for SpaceX rocket takeoff

Video: NASA astronauts prepare for SpaceX rocket takeoff

Video: Astronauts at launch pad as NASA prepares for SpaceX Falcon 9 takeoff. NASA has awarded nearly $8b combined to SpaceX, Boeing for development of the space-launch systems.. Two NASA astronauts arrived at a Florida�launch�pad flashing thumbs-up signs as they prepared to be carried into orbit on Wednesday by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's private rocket company SpaceX in the first spaceflight of US space agency astronauts from American soil in nine years.. On a day marked by off-and-on rain, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was due to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center at 4:33pm EDT (2033 GMT),�launching astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on a 19-hour ride aboard the company's newly designed Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station.. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine wrote on Twitter, although looming storm clouds off Florida's coast potentially could force a postponement of the mission until Saturday.. Musk and Bridenstine, wearing protective face masks due to the coronavirus pandemic, were present at the building to join the two astronauts, who did not wear face masks.. The astronauts then emerged from the building, waved to family members and onlookers including Vice President Mike Pence and hopped into a Tesla vehicle to drive