Crew-4 rehearse for launch

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and her Crew-4 crew mates, NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert “Bob” Hines and Jessica Watkins, run through launch day procedures ahead of their journey to the International Space Station.

This rehearsal takes place in the days before launch to ensure the crew and support teams are well-versed in the roles and processes of launch day.

Crew-4 will be launched to the Station in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket. This rocket will lift off from Launchpad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.

This is the second space mission for Samantha, who first flew to space in 2014 and spend almost 200 days in orbit for her Italian Space Agency ASI-sponsored mission Futura. Her ESA space mission, known as Minerva, will officially begin once she reaches the Station.

Samantha will be welcomed on board by fellow ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and enjoy a short handover in orbit before Matthias returns to Earth as part of Crew-3.
Throughout her mission, Samantha will hold the role of US Orbital Segment (USOS) lead, taking responsibility for all operations within the US, European, Japanese and Canadian modules and components of the Space Station. She will support around 35 European and many more international experiments in orbit.

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