Watch live starting at 1:30 a.m. EDT (5:30 a.m. UTC), Fri., April 23, as four astronauts launch from Earth to their new home in space, the International Space Station.
At 5:49 a.m. EDT (9:49 a.m. UTC), the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur of NASA, Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency, and Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will join the station's crew, for a mission of approximately six months.
This will be the first launch through our Commercial Crew Program to fly two international partner astronauts, and the first reuse of a Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket for a crew mission.
Once aboard the station, the Crew-2 astronauts will spend a lot of time on science — in areas such as medical technology, human health, and materials to benefit life on Earth. The space station is a unique scientific platform, enabling researchers from all over the world to put their talents to work on innovative experiments. It has instruments that monitor our home planet's global climate, environmental changes, and natural hazards.
