Everything is ready for Space X’s Crew Dragon 2 mission, the second operative of NASA’s Crew Commercial Program with astronauts on board. The Falcon 9 is already on the launch pad of the Cape Canaveral base in Florida (USA) to bring the 4 astronauts of the crew into orbit on the ISS, among which, for the first time in this program, the European astronaut also flies. ‘Esa Thomas Pesquet of French nationality. On the shuttle with Pesquet there are the Americans of Nasa Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur and the Japanese Akihiko Hoshide. The launch is currently scheduled for Thursday 22 April at 06.11 local time when in Italy it will be 12.11.
During today’s pre-launch conference, the mission managers of NASA and Space X confirmed that they are ready. “We are ‘go’ for launch,” said Steve Stich, manager of the Commercial Crew Program at Kennedy Space Center. “Both Thursday and Friday the launch time looks good” even if there is “concern” about the high winds on the ramp. “Friday looks better than Thursday, but we will keep watching. Tomorrow we have another briefing and we will decide when is the right time to make a decision,” said Stich in his statements reported by NASA.
The Space X Crew 2 mission runs for six months on the International Space Station. For the Elon Musk shuttle it is the second launch and the mission sees the French Pesquet take on the role of commander of the ISS, the second European to fill this prestigious role after the Italian Luca Parmitano. Franke De Winne, head of the European Astronaut Center and the ISS program of the European Space Agency, stressed that this launch “will be only the beginning of other missions that will see a European astronaut depart from the Kennedy Space Center”. When Pesquet will be on the ISS in the role of commander, the European Matthias Maurer will also land on the station and then it will be the turn of the Italian Samantha Cristoforetti.