SpaceX Crew-4 Suit-Up & Walkout Rehearsal | NASA's Kennedy Space Center

SpaceX Crew-4 Suit-Up & Walkout Rehearsal | NASA's Kennedy Space Center

Four commercial crew astronauts representing NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are scheduled to launch no earlier than April 26, 2022, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center inside the SpaceX Dragon Freedom crew ship and dock to the same port vacated by the Ax-1 mission on Sunday at 6 a.m. The quartet commanded by NASA’s Kjell Lindgren, with Pilot Robert Hines and Mission Specialists Jessica Watkins of NASA and the European Space Agency's Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy, will live and work aboard the orbiting lab for just over four-and-a-half months. The Crew-4 astronauts will become Expedition 67 flight engineers after they open the hatches and enter the space station.

ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti gives a thumbs-up in the suit room inside Kennedy Space Center’s Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building during Crew-4 dry dress rehearsal on April 20, 2022. 

NASA astronaut Jessica Watson smiles in the suit room inside Kennedy Space Center’s Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building during NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 dry dress rehearsal on April 20, 2022. 

NASA astronaut Bob Hines relaxes in the suit room inside Kennedy Space Center’s Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building during NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 dry dress rehearsal on April 20, 2022. 

NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren gets assistance in the suit room inside Kennedy Space Center’s Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building during NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 dry dress rehearsal on April 20, 2022. 

Crew-4 mission astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, Jessica Watkins, and Samantha Cristoforetti walk out of the Astronaut Crew Quarters inside Kennedy Space Center’s Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building during a dry dress rehearsal on April 20, 2022. A team of SpaceX suit technicians assisted them as they put on their custom-fitted spacesuits and checked the suits for leaks.

SpaceX Crew-4 Flag Raising

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 flag is raised near the News Center countdown clock at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 19, 2022. The SpaceX Falcon 9 with Crew Dragon, named Freedom by the Crew-4 crew, atop is scheduled to lift off Saturday, April 23, 2002, at 5:26 p.m. EDT, from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy. Dragon will carry NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

Caption Credit: NASA's Kennedy Space Center

Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Image Date: April 20, 2022

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