SpaceX Crew-2 Mission Launches

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission launched from Kennedy Space Center on Friday morning and is en route to the International Space Station (ISS). On board Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour are NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut  Akihiko  Hoshide  and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas  Pesquet. Endeavour is expected to dock with the station at approximately 5:10 a.m. EDT on Saturday morning.

“It has been an incredible year for NASA and our Commercial Crew Program, with three crewed launches to the space station since last May,” said NASA Acting Administrator Steve Jurczyk. “This is another important milestone for NASA, SpaceX, and our international partners at ESA and JAXA, and for the future of scientific research on board the space station.”

Crew-2 is the second of six joint NASA-SpaceX missions planned as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. It also marks the first reuse of a Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket on a crewed mission with Endeavour flying NASA’s Demo-2 mission—the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft—and the Falcon 9 used on Friday also having launched the Crew-1 mission to the ISS. NASA says it is targeting no earlier than Oct. 23 for Crew-3.