CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – SpaceX’s most international crew of astronauts yet arrived at their launch site Friday.
By coincidence, their flight to the International Space Station is set for next Thursday — Earth Day. It's a reminder of NASA's core mission of studying the home planet, the space agency's acting administrator Steve Jurczyk said as he welcomed the astronauts to Kennedy Space Center.
The three men and one woman represent the U.S., France and Japan: NASA's Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Thomas Pesquet and Akihiko Hoshide, all experienced space fliers. “It's definitely getting real,” Kimbrough, the spacecraft commander, said after arriving by plane from Houston.