After a short break of five months, the SpaceX Dragon is ready to lift off. Its second set of passengers will begin their journey to the International Space Station (ISS). The crew will take off in a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on April 22, 2021. Known as Crew-2, the mission will mark SpaceX’s third crewed spaceflight.
The Crew
The crew for the mission will constitute astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough from NASA, they will be joined by Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Akihiko Hoshide. All the members of the quartet have already been to space. They will embark on a long mission for six months at the ISS. They will join seven other astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS).
Date and Time of Launch
The launch is popular among the masses due to the partnership of a private enterprise, The SpaceX. The astronauts will take flight in the Crew Dragon Endeavour. It will be propelled to the space in the SpaceX Falcon-9 booster. The launch is scheduled on April 22, with liftoff at 3:41 p.m. IST (1011 GMT). The Crew-2 mission will embark its journey off this rock from NASA’s iconic Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The Crew-2 Dragon is expected to dock to the ISS on 5:30 pm on April 23, 2021. Meanwhile, NASA has invited the public to take part in virtual activities and events ahead of the launch.
How to Watch?
With the excitement running high among the space nerds, NASA has arranged live stream of the liftoff. NASA TV will live stream the launch on YouTube. The launch event is scheduled for 3:11 p.m. IST on Thursday, April 22. It will take roughly a day to reach the station. The live stream can be viewed from the link given below.
Meanwhile, the NASA and SpaceX are moving forward in their highly successful partnership for Commercial Crew Program. The earlier tests have been largely successful. Crew-2 is the second flight in the partnership after the successful launch of the Crew-1 mission in 2020.
Looking forward NASA is anticipated to be closely monitoring the launch of the third flight in the partnership, i.e. the Crew-3 mission. This third mission is expected to take off as early as October 23.
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