Preparing Falcon 9 for Crew-2 launch

A Falcon 9 Crew Dragon is prepared for the launch of Crew-2 on launch pad 39A on 19 April 2021 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.



French ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet is returning to the International Space Station on his second spaceflight. Called ‘Alpha’the mission will see a European astronaut launch on a US spacecraft for the first time in over a decade. Thomas is flying alongside NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough and Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide on the Crew Dragon. Thomas will be the first ESA astronaut to fly on a vehicle other than the US Space Shuttle or Russian Soyuz.



The Crew-2 launch is scheduled for 22 April at 06:11 EDT/12:11 CEST.

Background information on the Alpha mission is available at www.esa.int/MissionAlpha with a brochure at www.esa.int/AlphaBrochure.