Erik Kuna for Supercluster
There are now 11 crewmembers living aboard the International Space Station. Eight of them were flown there by SpaceX.
The most recent arrivals, Crew-2, flew on the Endeavour Dragon (which also carried Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on DM-2) launching atop a previously-flown Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket lifted off on Friday morning April 23rd at 5:49 EDT from Launch Complex 39A––the same pad that hosted the launch of Apollo 11.
Aboard were NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide. The crew arrived at the station on Saturday morning with Endeavour beginning docking maneuvers around 3:40 AM EDT and finishing at the Harmony module's forward port at 5:08 AM EDT.
John Kraus (Left, Middle) and Erik Kuna (Right) for Supercluster
Erik Kuna for Supercluster
Crew-2 marks the first time humans have launched on a previously-flown Falcon 9 rocket and the first time a European astronaut, Thomas Pesquet, flew on a privately-developed spacecraft. NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Megan McArthur are married and have now both flown on the same Crew Dragon.
Crew-1 NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, and JAXA's Soichi Noguchi are still aboard the International Space Station until this weekend. NASA and SpaceX are now slating their return home for Saturday, May 1st, at 11:36 AM EDT, touching down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida. The Crew-1 Dragon Resilience is scheduled to undock from the Station at 5:55 PM EDT on Friday.
Our launch photographer Erik Kuna wanted to capture something unique for the launch so he ventured 114 miles away from Kennedy Space Center to Green Cove Springs in Florida. There, an abandoned Space Shuttle external fuel tank resides. It was the final test article produced for the shuttle program and was used for stress and structural testing at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in the late 70s.
The incredible visuals produced in the pre-dawn sky were enabled by the exhaust plumes emitting from the Falcon 9 during ascent and separation.
Erik Kuna for Supercluster
Erik Kuna for Supercluster
Erik Kuna for Supercluster
Erik Kuna for Supercluster
Erik Kuna for Supercluster