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SpaceX is scheduled to launch its second commercial operational crew mission to the NASA International Space Station, with a takeoff time of 5:49 AM EDT (2:49 AM PDT) Friday morning. The flight will carry four astronauts, including two from NASA, one from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and one from ESA (European Space Agency), to the station, where they will start a regular working tour, conducting scientific experiments, maintaining and upgrading the orbital platform.

This is the second mission of the commercial crew of SpaceX, which officially qualified the Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket for a human flight last year. NASA He then launched four astronauts using SpaceX's human-approved launch system later that year in November, making it the first private company to transport people to the International Space Station, and the first American vehicle to do so since the space shuttle's retirement. In 2011. 

Since the end of this program, NASA has relied on purchasing flights onboard Russian Soyuz rockets to maintain its representation on the International Space Station.

There is already a SpaceX Crew Dragon on the space station from the Crew-1 launch last year, and it was flown to another port on the station earlier this month in preparation for the arrival of the plane flying to Crew-2. The Crew-1 Dragon capsule is set to return to Earth with astronauts on board as soon as the flight crew comforts them, likely later this month on April 28.

One of the main noticeable changes to this launch is the use of the proven Falcon 9 rocket booster. SpaceX has previously used new, new boosters from the factory for its human launches, although it has a strong track record when it comes to boosting the reuse of its cargo flights. 

It's also the first reuse of the Dragon Spacecraft, and both components of this launch system have already supported human launches earlier, with the first stage being introduced during Crew-1, and the Dragon capsule providing the flight for the Demo-2, which flew astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.

The astronauts aboard today's flight are Shane Kembra and Megan MacArthur of NASA, as well as Akihiko Hoshid of JAXA and Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency. As mentioned earlier, the takeoff time is set to 5:49 AM EDT, but SpaceX will go live hours in advance at around 1:30 AM EST on Friday (10:30 PM PDT Thursday ).