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Astronauts for SpaceX Crew-2 mission prepare for launch
BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – Astronauts for the SpaceX Crew-2 mission said they are ready for the launch next month at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. [I] just want to give a shoutout to the NASA and SpaceX training teams [that] have done such a great job. We’re ready and we’re excited to fly,” astronaut Megan McArthur, the pilot for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission said. “We’re gonna do our very best to represent NASA and ESA and JAXA and SpaceX in the International Space Station,” Kimbrough said. “It’s an international crew so that in itself can show the possibilities that are out there.”
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SpaceX targeting April to launch 4 astronauts from 3 countries to space station
The members of the SpaceX Crew-2 mission to the International Space Station. Picture from left are NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet. The NASA, European Space Agency and Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) crew are slated to launch atop the Falcon 9 rocket from launchpad 39A no earlier than April 20 and travel to the International Space Station, where four other astronauts, who also arrived via SpaceX, will be waiting. The mission known as Crew-2 will include NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet. Additionally there is another Russian Space Agency Soyuz launch slated for spring with three astronauts headed to the ISS, meaning at some point there could be 11 astronauts on station together at the same time.