SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and the Crew Dragon Endeavor spacecraft rolled on Route 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Friday. Hydraulics raised the 215-foot-long (65-meter) rocket vertically on the historic launch pad in preparation for the ramp with four astronauts en route to the International Space Station.
The two-phase launcher, powered by a stage stage reused from a crew launch in November, will take off on Thursday at 06:11 EDT (1011 GMT) with NASA Commander Shane Kimbrough, pilot Megan McArthur, and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide , and the European Space Agency’s mission specialist, Thomas Pesquet.
All four veterans of previous space missions depart the four astronauts on a six-month expedition to the space station. They will ride in orbit in the cockpit of SpaceX’s commercial Crew Dragon Endeavor spaceship, which was also refurbished after a flight last year.
The Crew-2 mission is the first time SpaceX has launched a mission using a reused rocket and spacecraft. This is the third Crew Dragon flight with overall astronauts, and SpaceX’s second complete mission for rotation to the space station.
The Falcon 9 rocket drove with a carrier along train tracks for the quarter-mile ride on the ramp to Route 39A, which began just after sunrise Friday. SpaceX lifts the rocket vertically on the launch pad later that day.
Consult our Mission Status Center for comprehensive coverage of the Crew-2 flight to the International Space Station.
Additional photos of the Falcon 9 rocket’s rollout to Road 39A are posted below.
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