Crew-2 astronauts arrive ahead of SpaceX launch
Four set to ride to International Space Station aboard Crew Dragon capsule
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — Four astronauts arrived in Florida on Friday just a few days before they’re set to launch to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s next crewed launch.
NASA’s Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Akihiko Hoshide of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency and Thomas Pesquet from the European Space Agency are scheduled to launch Thursday at 6:11 a.m. They’ll ride in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule atop the company’s Falcon 9 rocket, both of which were recycled from previous astronaut missions.
Kimbrough is the commander, and McArthur is the pilot. If they’re successful, it will be only the third time astronauts have launched from American soil since the space shuttle program ended in 2011.
The first was a test flight in May 2020 with Bob Behnken — McArthur’s husband — and Doug Hurley, who spent 63 days at the ISS before splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola. The second was Crew-1 in November with NASA’s Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi, who are scheduled to come back to Earth just a few days after the Crew-2 launch.
Crew-2 will use the same Dragon capsule that Hurley and Behnken did, as well as the same rocket that launched Crew-1.
“Reuse is really important,” said NASA’s acting administrator Steve Jurczyk. “And it was a challenge for the NASA-SpaceX team to certify both the spacecraft and the launch vehicle for flight for this mission, but they were more than up to the challenge.”
All of the crew members for next week’s launch are veteran astronauts.
Kimbrough’s first trip to space was in 2008 aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. During that mission, he performed two spacewalks and helped expand the ISS living quarters. Kimbrough also flew on two expeditions on Russia’s Soyuz rocket in 2016 and 2017, during which he did four more spacewalks. In total, he’s logged 189 days in space.
McArthur was part of the crew for the final shuttle mission to the Hubble Telescope aboard the Atlantis, during which she spent 13 days in space. On Friday, she described seeing the Falcon 9 rocket from the plane that flew the crew to Florida.
“We got to fly by the pad and see our rocket getting ready to go, and it’s just an amazing feeling,” she said. “I’ve gotten to do that before, and really there’s nothing like it when you look out the window and see a spaceship getting prepared, and realize that you’re going to be riding on it in a few days.”
Hoshide, who is from Tokyo, was included on the 2008 mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery and has flown on the Soyuz. He’s also been deeply involved in the training of other Japanese astronauts.
Pesquet, from Rouen, France, first went to space in 2016 on the Soyuz, when he became only the 10th astronaut from France to go to space after a nineyear drought. During that mission, he performed two spacewalks.
The foursome will spend about six months at the ISS conducting science experiments.
Although next week’s launch is technically not a test flight, Kimbrough said, “all of them, until we get several years under our belt, should be considered test flights.”
“NASA and the partners make it seem routine, but it’s not. We know it’s not. There’s a lot of work that goes into it,” added Pesquet.
Jurczyk also pointed out that, if schedules hold, Crew-2 will launch on Earth Day. The timing is just a coincidence, but he said it’s a reminder of NASA’s core mission to study the planet.
“This work is essential for the nation and the world and dealing with climate change,” Jurczyk said. “We use the unique vantage point of space to study the Earth, from the oceans to the atmosphere, and really try to study and model the Earth as a system and try to determine how the planet is evolving.”