Space Launch Live: America Returns to Space will be simulcast live coast to coast on Wednesday, May 27 at 2pm ET / 11am PT, live from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The event marks the first crewed space mission to be launched into orbit from U.S. soil in nine years. A star-studded celebration will proceed the launch as well as a two-hour documentary airing on both Discovery and Science Channel.

The live multiplatform event will take viewers along the mission to launch veteran astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the ISS on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. The mission, known as Demo-2, will use a Falcon 9 rocket, also built by SpaceX, to propel it. Discovery and Science Channel coverage will feature commentary from astronauts, engineers and other special guests, as well as unprecedented coverage during launch, including insight from Mike Massimino.

Mike Massimino is a former NASA Astronaut, a New York Times bestselling author, a Columbia University engineering professor, and an advisor at The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. A veteran of two space shuttle missions and four spacewalks, Mike was the first person to tweet from space, holds the team record for the most spacewalking time on a single space shuttle mission, and successfully completed the most complicated spacewalk ever attempted to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. Mike persisted through three rejections over 7 years on his way to becoming an astronaut, including overcoming a medical disqualification by training his eyes and brain to see better. He has had a recurring role as himself on the CBS comedy “The Big Bang Theory,” is the host for the Science Channel Series “The Planets and Beyond,” was featured in National Geographic Television’s “One Strange Rock,” is a frequent expert guest on news programs and late night television (including Good Morning America, The Today Show, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNBC, and The Late Show with David Letterman), and has been called the real-life astronaut who inspired George Clooney’s role in the movie “Gravity.” He lives in New York City.