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NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 Suited, Ready for Their Ride to Launch Pad 39A

Members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission play a traditional card game with Joe Acaba, NASA astronaut chief, inside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building’s Astronaut Crew Quarters at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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Just moments ago, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 flight crew began the walk that every NASA astronaut has made since Apollo 7 in 1968, heading to the elevator and down through the double doors below the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building’s Astronaut Crew Quarters at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Before they left the suit-up room, the crew completed one last piece of unfinished business – a card game. A long-held spaceflight tradition, NASA crews play cards before leaving the crew quarters ahead of launch until the commander loses. It is hoped that by losing, the commander burns off all his or her bad luck, thereby clearing the mission for only good luck.

The Crew-11 mission will fly aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft, named Endeavour, previously supported several missions to and from the International Space Station, including SpaceX Demo-2 and the agency’s Crew-2, Crew-6, and Crew-8 flights, as well as Axiom Space’s Axiom Mission 1.

In just a few moments, the crew will receive goodbyes and well wishes from their families and friends, then make their way to the customized electric vehicles to take them on the 20-minute journey to Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39A and their awaiting spacecraft.