Vice President Mike Pence Watches Astronauts Launch from Florida’s Space Coast for the Second Time This Year

By Space Coast Daily // November 14, 2020

mission lifted off from Florida's Space Coast at 7:27 p.m. ET

Vice President Mike Pence visited the Space Coast on Sunday to witness history, once again in 2020, after the SpaceX and NASA Crew-1 Mission launched four astronauts from Kennedy Space Center, bound for the International Space Station. (Mike Pence Twitter Image)

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Vice President Mike Pence visited the Space Coast on Sunday to witness history, once again in 2020, after the SpaceX and NASA Crew-1 Mission launched four astronauts from Kennedy Space Center, bound for the International Space Station.

The Crew-1 flight is carrying Crew Dragon Commander Michael Hopkins, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Shannon Walker, all of NASA, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Mission Specialist Soichi Noguchi, to the space station for a six-month science mission.

The mission lifted off on schedule as 7:27 p.m. ET

The astronauts and the Crew Dragon spacecraft will dock on the ISS at around 11 p.m. ET on Monday. Coverage can be seen on Space Coast Daily TV.

Following the launch, the booster made a perfect landing on the recovery ship about nine minutes after launch.

The mission is the second this year to include astronauts launching from American soil when Crew Dragon’s test flight took NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on board the spacecraft and marked the return of U.S. human spaceflight and the first-time in history a commercial company successfully transported NASA astronauts to the International Space Station and back home to Earth.

ABOVE VIDEO: SpaceX and NASA successfully launched Sunday, November 15 for Falcon 9’s launch of Dragon’s first operational crew mission (Crew-1) to the International Space Station (ISS) from historic Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.