BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — NASA says all systems are a “go” for Thursday’s Crew-2 launch from Kennedy Space Center.
Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich announced the decision at a briefing Tuesday morning.
“We reviewed all the open work coming out of the agency flight readiness review and the systems on the vehicles and we concluded we are go for launch,” he said.
Teams are also keeping an eye on the weather, which NASA says looks to be 80% favorable.
This is the second crew rotation flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon and the first with two international partners.
“We got to fly by the pad and see our rocket getting ready to go and it’s just an amazing feeling. I’ve gotten to do that before. And really there’s nothing like it when you look out the window and see spaceship getting prepared and realize going to be riding on it in a few days,” McArthur said.
Dragon is scheduled to dock with the space station about 5:30 a.m. April 23.
McArthur will pilot the same Endeavour Crew Dragon that carried her husband, NASA astronaut Bob Behnken, and his crewmate NASA astronaut Doug Hurley, on the Demo-2 flight test less than a year ago.
The launch, on a Falcon 9 rocket, is targeted for 6:11 a.m. April 22 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
Photos: NASA astronaut, Russian cosmonauts blast off on mission to International Space Station In this image provided by NASA, the Soyuz MS-18 rocket is launched with NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitskiy, Friday, April 9, 2021, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
Photos: NASA astronaut, Russian cosmonauts blast off on mission to International Space Station In this image provided by NASA, Russian cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov, top, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, middle, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy wave farewell prior to boarding the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft for launch, Friday, April 9, 2021, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
Photos: NASA astronaut, Russian cosmonauts blast off on mission to International Space Station In this image provided by NASA, from left, U.S. astronaut Mark Vande Hei, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, members of the main crew to the International Space Station (ISS), attend a news conference in the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, April 8, 2021. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
Photos: NASA astronaut, Russian cosmonauts blast off on mission to International Space Station In this photo released by the Roscosmos Space Agency, from left, U.S. astronaut Mark Vande Hei, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, members of the main crew to the International Space Station (ISS), waves near a bus with portraits of the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin prior to the launch at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Friday, April 9, 2021. (Roscosmos Space Agency via AP)
Photos: NASA astronaut, Russian cosmonauts blast off on mission to International Space Station In this photo taken from video footage released by the Roscosmos Space Agency, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket booster with Soyuz MS-18 space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, flies at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Friday, April 9, 2021. (Roscosmos Space Agency via AP)
Photos: NASA astronaut, Russian cosmonauts blast off on mission to International Space Station In this photo taken from video footage released by the Roscosmos Space Agency, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket booster with Soyuz MS-18 space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Friday, April 9, 2021. (Roscosmos Space Agency via AP)
Photos: NASA astronaut, Russian cosmonauts blast off on mission to International Space Station In this photo taken from video footage released by the Roscosmos Space Agency from onboard camera, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket booster with Soyuz MS-18 space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, flies after the launch from the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Friday, April 9, 2021. (Roscosmos Space Agency via AP)
Photos: NASA astronaut, Russian cosmonauts blast off on mission to International Space Station In this photo taken from video footage released by the Roscosmos Space Agency, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket booster with Soyuz MS-18 space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Friday, April 9, 2021. (Roscosmos Space Agency via AP)
Photos: NASA astronaut, Russian cosmonauts blast off on mission to International Space Station In this photo taken from video footage released by the Roscosmos Space Agency, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket booster with Soyuz MS-18 space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Friday, April 9, 2021. (Roscosmos Space Agency via AP)
Photos: NASA astronaut, Russian cosmonauts blast off on mission to International Space Station In this image provided by NASA, the Soyuz MS-18 rocket is launched with NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitskiy, Friday, April 9, 2021, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)