Texas-Born Astronaut Shane Kimbrough 1 Of 4 Set To Launch On Board SpaceX's Crew Dragon
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (CBSDFW/AP) — SpaceX is aiming for its third crew launch to the International Space Station an hour before sunrise Friday.
And a native Texan will be on board.
Commander of the Crew 2 Mission, NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough is from Killeen. He will represent the U.S. along with NASA astronaut Megan McArthur.
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet from the European Space Agency make up the rest of the veteran crew.
They're set to blast off on April 22 from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:11 a.m. EDT (1011 GMT). And, if all goes as planned, Crew Dragon will dock with the orbital outpost less than 24 hours later.
The crew was supposed to fly to the space station Thursday. But liftoff was delayed because of poor weather offshore. SpaceX's Dragon capsule requires calm waves and winds in case an emergency splashdown is needed on the climb to orbit. For the first time, Elon Musk's company is using a recycled capsule and rocket to launch astronauts. The capsule launched with SpaceX's first crew last May, and the rocket hoisted the second crew in November.
