00:00And here they come. Crew 11 walking outside for the final time before launch in hopes of starting a mission years in the making.
00:15Nick is waving. You can't see him, but he he was literally waving at the screen. How can you not?
00:45Our crew today, Commander Zena Cardman, Pilot Michael Fink, JAXA astronaut Kimi Ayui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.
00:59Platonov. I corrected my pronunciation yesterday and I slipped back into Americanizing it.
01:06Crew walkout has commenced on schedule.
01:09Everything on schedule?
01:18So this is this is the last chance to say goodbye to family.
01:21And, you know, once the crew gets in the cars, they'll be able to roll down the window and say the last few words.
01:27But friends and family, spouses, children, I'm going to see you in six months, maybe eight.
01:38Core on countdown. Advance team is complete with preps and ready for crew arrival on schedule.
01:53So we've gotten the word that the crew can pull out from their location.
01:57This looks like you can have even a little conversation at this point.
02:01Yeah, you know, last little, you know, these are the things I forgot to do at the house that I need to remind you of.
02:07It is. It's a chance to say those last few words.
02:13You know, for me, those words always fail to fully express the emotion that you have in the moment.
02:19You're excited to go, but you're also a little sad to know that you're going to be separated from friends and family for that long.
02:31And you know what they're feeling as well, which is, you know, family is in a different position.
02:38Yeah, you know, they're bystanders and they get to watch this, which is definitely a different perspective than being in the seat and in the middle of the operations.
02:50It can be stressful, but they, you know, NASA does an amazing job of providing extended support to the families to help them, you know, especially through stressful times like a launch.
03:07There go the doors. I saw another heart sign.
03:17We should have counted.
03:30So you see three Teslas there. The first Tesla has the closeout lead and two suit technicians.
03:36The second Tesla has the commander and pilot along with a flight surgeon.
03:42And the third Tesla in the back that you see there has the second closeout lead and other support staff along with the two mission specialists.
03:57And here's that moment you were talking about, Nick.
04:03Well, it's just natural to want to lean in a little bit, isn't it?
04:09It is.
04:11The quarantine, you know, the window's down and you want to just reach through and give them a hug and you can't.
04:18Right.
04:23Well, they're queuing up the playlist songs that they will listen to on that 20-minute journey.
04:31I see Jessica Watkins from the astronaut office, fellow astronaut.
04:36They're taking some pictures. She's in the blue flight suit on the left.
04:40Yep. And we've got, you know, astronauts assigned to each of the families to provide them that support.
04:47And it means a lot for the crew member that's launching to know that you've got one of your colleagues, one of your friends that's there to take care of the people you hold most dear.
04:55No.
04:56Well, there's Xena giving the last wave with the window down.
05:04You know, there's lots of mixed emotions when you're launching and, you know, this is one of those moments where it's lots of smiles and energy, but there's also, you know, teary eyes.
05:16All right. All right. To big cheers, the crew is pulling out. Crew 11 on the road to launch pad 39A.
05:28All right.
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