NASA, SpaceX’s Crew-2 mission: Details you need to know

Orlando, Fla. — NASA and SpaceX are set to launch four astronauts to the International Space Station on Friday, April 23 aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Crew-2 is scheduled to liftoff into a pre-dawn sky at 5:49 a.m. EST from historic Launch Pad 39-A at Kennedy Space Center.

This will be the third crewed mission overall for SpaceX and its Crew Dragon spacecraft following its Demo-2 flight last year and the Crew-1 mission which remains in orbit.

How do I watch the launch?

Tune into NASA Television. Coverage of the Crew-2 mission begins at 1:30 a.m. Friday.

Additionally, SpaceX will provide coverage of the mission on its website. Tune into SpaceX Mission Coverage here.

Who are the four Crew-2 astronauts on board the SpaceX Dragon capsule?

The astronauts inside the Crew Dragon “Endeavour” are NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

Kimbrough will serve as the spacecraft commander and McArthur will be the pilot for the mission.

Hoshide and Pesquet will join as mission specialists.

Read more about the four astronauts here.

Where are the astronauts going?

Just like Crew-1, the four astronauts are headed for the International Space Station where they will live and work for about six months.

A scientific focus on this expedition is continuing a series of “tissue chips” in space studies.

Read more about upcoming micro-gravity science from NASA here.

What’s special about the Crew-2 mission?

First off, this the first time in history that a reused human capsule (Crew Dragon) will transport astronauts into low-Earth orbit.

This mission marks the second flight into orbit for the Crew Dragon “Endeavour,” (a.k.a spacecraft C206) which flew the historic Demo-2 mission in May 2020.

Speaking of Demo-2: NASA astronaut Megan McArthur is the wife of astronaut Bob Behnken and will fly on board the same Dragon spacecraft as her husband did less than a year ago.

The Crew-2 mission will bring SpaceX’s astronaut count to 10 as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

And for the first time in program history, two international partners will be on board—astronaut Akihiko Hoshide of Japan and astronaut Thomas Pesquet of France.

What happens if Crew-2 is scrubbed on Friday?

The Crew Dragon capsule needs to meet up with the International Space Station in orbit, so if SpaceX doesn’t launch on Friday then SpaceX will wait two days to Monday for the next launch opportunity.

NASA and SpaceX have to consider the weather conditions both on the Space Coast and in the Atlantic Ocean.

Cox Media Group