Four astronauts from three countries are preparing to leave Earth this week aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, marking the third-ever crewed flight for Elon Musk's company, and the first from SpaceX to make use of a previously flown rocket booster and spacecraft.
This launch marked the third-ever crewed flight for Elon Musk's company and the first to make use of a previously flown rocket booster and spacecraft.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Crew-2 mission, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Friday's SpaceX launch will make use of the same rocket booster that powered SpaceX's Crew-1 mission in November, as well as the same spacecraft, dubbed "Endeavour," that was used on SpaceX historic Demo-2 mission last May. SpaceX has long made reusability a cornerstone of its business plan, hoping that recovering and refurbishing hardware will drive down the cost of spaceflight. Though the company has re-flown boosters and spacecraft dozens of times on satellite and cargo launches over the past several years, this will mark the first time the company will reuse hardware for a crewed mission.
NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur are on board the capsule, which is slated to dock with the International Space Station around 5 am ET Saturday. Also on board are French astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency, and Akihiko Hoshide from Japan.
The Crew Dragon capsule soared into space atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that was charred with soot from its previous missionThe journey is slated to begin at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, when they'll board the capsule atop one of SpaceX's 200-foot-tall Falcon 9 rockets. And, if looming thunderstorms don't intervene, the rocket will take off at 5:49 am ET.
The astronauts' Crew Dragon will separate from the rocket shortly after reaching Earth's orbit — traveling at speeds topping 17,000 miles per hour — and the crew will spend nearly a full day aboard the spacecraft as it slowly maneuvers toward the 21-year-old International Space Station, which orbits about 250 miles above ground.
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