NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 astronauts are in orbit following their early morning launch bound for the International Space Station for the second commercial crew rotation mission aboard the microgravity laboratory. The international crew of astronauts lifted off at 5:49 a.m.  Friday from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Crew Dragon also is delivering almost 250 pounds of cargo, new science hardware, and experiments, including a university student-led investigation to study possible causes for suppressed immune response in microgravity.During Crew-2, astronauts also will conduct a variety of spacewalks outside the space station, including the solar array installation.NASA and SpaceX are capable of supporting seven splashdown sites located off Florida's east coast and in the Gulf of Mexico.NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is delivering on its goal of safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station from the United States.

• First commercial crew mission to fly two international partners;
• First commercial crew handover between astronauts on the space station as Crew-1 and Crew-2 astronauts will spend about five days together on station before Crew-1 returns to Earth;
• First reuse of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket on a crew mission –Crew Dragon Endeavour flew the historic Demo-2 mission and the Falcon 9 flew astronauts on the Crew-1 mission; and,
• First time two commercial crew spacecraft will be docked to station at the same time.Pesquet is the first of three ESA crew members assigned to fly to station on commercial crew spacecraft.his new success of the Commercial Crew Program embodies.Shane Kimbrough is commander of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and the Crew-2 mission.imbrough first launched aboard space shuttle Endeavour for a visit to the station on the STS-126 mission in 2008.Russian Soyuz spacecraft for his first long-duration mission for Expedition 49/50 in 2016. He has spent a total of 189 days in space and performed six spacewalks. Megan McArthur is the pilot of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and second-in-command for the mission.McArthur is responsible for spacecraft systems and performance.McArthur launched on space shuttle Atlantis as a mission specialist on STS-125, the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, in 2009.kihiko Hoshide is a mission specialist for Crew-2. As a mission specialist, he will work closely with the commander and pilot to monitor the spacecraft .oshide is a veteran of two spaceflights. In June 2008, he flew to the International Space Station on the STS-124 mission to deliver the Japanese Experiment Module "Kibo" to the station.