Video: Astronauts participate in Crew Dragon launch day dress rehearsal

NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, assigned to fly SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft on its first piloted mission into orbit, participated in a dress rehearsal of their suit-up procedures and a trip to launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 17, 2020.

NASA and SpaceX officials organized the practice run before the launch of a Crew Dragon capsule on a high-altitude escape test to demonstrate the performance ship’s launch abort engines.

In this video released by NASA, the astronauts are seen suiting up inside the Operations and Checkout Building at KSC, riding inside a Tesla Model X automobile to pad 39A, then taking an elevator to the 265-foot-level. Hurley and Behnken walked across the crew access arm to the white room, where they would board the Crew Dragon during a real countdown.

On launch day, the astronauts will follow a similar path, riding across the space center the Tesla Model X to the launch pad.

Email the author.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.