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SpaceX's Crew-5 arrives at Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of upcoming launch
SpaceX Crew-5 astronauts arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday ahead of their scheduled launch on Wednesday to the International Space Station.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. - The crew has arrived!
SpaceX's Crew-5 mission astronauts arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday ahead of their scheduled launch on Wednesday, Oct. 5 at noon. The launch was delayed due to Hurricane Ian.
NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina have been preparing for the launch at Johnson Space Center in Houston during the final weeks before they travel to Florida for liftoff on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
There are a few reasons this particular crewed mission is unique. Mann, the Crew-5 commander, and pilot Cassada were both previously assigned to fly on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, the second spacecraft NASA selected under the commercial crew program to fly astronauts to and from the ISS. Starliner completed its final uncrewed test earlier this year but has yet to fly astronauts to the space station.
It will be the first time in space for all but one of the Crew-5 astronauts. Japan's Koichi has spent more than 347 days in space from his spaceflights on two Soyuz missions and Space Shuttle Endeavour.
The four members of the SpaceX Crew-5 mission pose for a portrait in their Crew Dragon flight suits at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. From left are Mission Specialist Anna Kikina from Roscosmos; Pilot Josh Cassada and Commander Nicole …
For the first time since SpaceX began launching NASA astronauts from American soil in 2020, the Russian Space Agency and NASA have traded a seat onboard the commercial spacecraft. Kikina will be the first cosmonaut to fly with SpaceX. The Crew-5 member will also be the second female cosmonaut to launch from Florida. In 1997, Russian cosmonaut Yelena V. Kondakova launched on NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis.
Liftoff is targeted for is targeted for noon EDT, Wednesday, Oct. 5, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Dragon spacecraft, named Endurance, is scheduled to dock to the space station at 4:57 p.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 6. You can watch the launch live at FOX35Orlando.com or in the FOX 35 News App.
FOX Weather contributed to this report.