TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — NASA’s next crewed mission is expected early Friday from Kennedy Space Center. For the first time, the four-person crew represents four different countries.

NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli is the commander of the Crew-7 mission and is the only NASA astronaut flying on this mission.

The Crew-7 pilot, Andreas Mogenson, represents the European Space Agency and the two mission specialists, Satoshi Furukawa and Konstantin Borisov, represent Japan and Russia, respectively.

Crew-7. Credit NASA

This is the seventh regular crewed mission to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program where commercial partners are used to get astronauts to the ISS, as opposed to NASA themselves when they did back in the Space Shuttle era.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the crew dragon capsule ‘Endurance’ on top stands tall on launch complex 39-A. Credit: NASA

The astronauts will launch on the Crew Dragon Capsule Endurance which previously flew the Crew-3 and Crew-5 astronauts to the ISS.

The launch is scheduled for 3:49 a.m. Eastern time Friday, Aug. 25 It is an instantaneous launch window meaning they have to launch at that specific time or the launch will be postponed. Weather is looking good with the 45th Weather Squadron giving an 85% chance of favorable conditions at launch time. There are backup launch opportunities on Saturday and Sunday mornings if needed.

If the goes as planned Friday morning, the astronauts will dock to the ISS just after 2 a.m. Saturday for about a 22-hour trip. Once there, they will spend six months in space conducting over 200 science experiments.

The astronauts of the Crew-7 mission sitting inside the crew dragon capsule during training. Credit: NASA

According to NASA, one will study microbial samples collected from the outside of the ISS. Another will look at how zero gravity affects an astronaut’s sleep patterns.

Currently, SpaceX is the only qualified commercial partner to launch NASA astronauts from the Kennedy Space Center on the Crew Dragon Capsule. Boeing is still working to certify its Starliner crew capsule after years of delays and mission setbacks.

A Crew-7 astronaut during training inside the Crew Dragon Capsule before launch. Credit: NASA

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program aims to have sixth-month-long mission rotations, launching four astronauts at a time.

This seventh mission will be the eighth time humans have launched from United States soil since May of 2020. The first crewed mission, Demo-2, was a demonstration mission and not considered part of the regular cadence yet. It was the final step for SpaceX to certify the Crew Dragon Capsule.